49 - JENARO DE URRUTIA OLARÁN (Plencia, Biscay, 1893 – Bilbao, 1965)

JENARO DE URRUTIA OLARÁN (Plencia, Biscay, 1893 – Bilbao, 1965) “London.” Watercolor on paper. Signed and dated in the lower left corner. Measurements: 31 x 39 cm; 49 x 60 cm (frame). Jenaro de Urrutia Olarán was one of the leading figures in the renewal of Basque painting during the first half of the 20th century. He trained at the Bilbao School of Arts and Crafts and, thanks to a scholarship from the Provincial Council of Vizcaya, continued his studies in Paris, where he came into contact with new European artistic movements and was particularly influenced by Cézanne. He later traveled to Rome. Associated from the outset with the Association of Basque Artists, of which he served as president from 1926 to 1929, he participated in numerous exhibitions in Bilbao, Madrid, Zaragoza, San Sebastián, and Valencia, as well as in the exhibitions of the Society of Iberian Artists, one of the key platforms for the renewal of Spanish art in the 1920s. After the Civil War, he focused particularly on mural work, creating pieces in various churches throughout the Basque Country. His work is held in major public collections, including the Bilbao Museum of Fine Arts, which possesses a notable collection of his paintings, as well as the Álava Museum of Fine Arts, the San Telmo Museum in San Sebastián, the Provincial Council of Bizkaia, and other Basque institutional collections. Urrutia Olarán thus occupies a prominent place among the generation of artists who helped introduce European artistic modernity into Basque painting without renouncing their roots or their figurative tradition.