Toledo Landscape - Bilbao Fine Arts Museum

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Toledo Landscape

Arrue, Ramiro

Bilbao, 20/05/1892-Saint Jean de Luz, France, 03/04/1971

Oil on canvas

80.5 x 65 cm

RAMIRO / ARRUE (bottom right hand corner); Ramiro Arrue (on the reverse, in the frame)

1932

First half of the 20th century

82/111

Acquired in 1932

Brother of the painters Alberto, José and Ricardo, Ramiro Arrue arrived in Paris in 1907, where he received his earliest training in drawing and painting and saw the sculptors Mogrobejo, Durrio and Bourdelle and the painter Zuloaga. In 1911 he set up in the French town of Ciboure, not far from the Spanish border. In that same year he helped to create the Association of Basque Artists, in which, like his brothers, he held a number of management posts. When he married in 1929, he settled in St. Jean de Luz, where he lived until his death. Besides painting, he was a stage designer and the author of fine enamels with his brother Ricardo; he also worked as an illustrator and poster artist.

The main themes of Ramiro Arrue's work were the landscape, Basque folklore and idealized scenes of Basque rural life, using simplified, geometrized forms, clear lines and intense colours.

In Toledo Landscape, we find the same interest in simplifying the rotund volumes of the church, stripped of all detail to reveal the building in its essence, with the filament-like trees and the ground virtually bare. The sober but delicate colour, with clear earths and pinks predominating, contributes to the work's architectural solitude. (Javier Viar)

Selected bibliography

Segunda Exposición de Artistas Vascongados : organizada por la Junta del Museo de Arte Moderno de Bilbao, 15 de mayo a 15 de junio 1932 [Folleto]. Bilbao, Museo de Arte Moderno, 1932. n° cat. 15.
Zuazagoitia, Joaquín de. "Pintura vasca", Zumárraga : revista de Estudios Vascos, n° 3. 1954. p. 138.
50 años de pintura vasca, 1885-1935 [Cat. exp.]. Madrid, Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia, 1971. n° cat. 8.
50 años de pintura vasca, 1885-1935 [Cat. exp.]. San Sebastián, Museo de San Telmo, 1972. s. p., n° cat. 7.
Pintores y escultores vascos de ayer, hoy y mañana. Bilbao, La Gran Enciclopedia Vasca, vol. XI, 1975. p. 111.
Bengoechea, Javier de. Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao : guía del visitante. Bilbao, Caja de Ahorros Vizcaína, 1977. p. 34.
Bengoechea, Javier de. Catálogo de arte moderno y contemporáneo del Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao. Bilbao, Banco de Vizcaya, 1980. p. 22. (Con el título Paisaje de Toledo).
Mur Pastor, Pilar. La Asociación de Artistas Vascos. Bilbao, Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao ; Caja de Ahoros Vizcaína, 1985. pp. 154, 283.
Arte y artistas vascos de los años 30 = 30 urtearen hamarkadako euskal artea eta artistak [Cat. exp.]. Donostia-San Sebastián, Gipuzkoako Foru Aldundia = Diputación Foral de Guipuzcoa, 1986. p. 303.
Larrínaga, José Antonio. Los cuatro Arrue : artistas vascos. Bilbao, [s. n.], 1990. p. 162.
Guía Artistas Vascos. Bilbao, Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2008. pp. 99-100.
Gida Euskal Artistak. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Eder Museoa, 2008. pp. 99-100.
Novecentismo y Vanguardia, 1910-1936 : en la colección del Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao [Cat. exp.]. Bilbao, Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2009. pp. 250-251, n° cat. 78.
Guide Basque Artists. Bilbao, Bilbao Fine Arts Museum, 2012. pp. 99-100, n° cat. 48b.
Ramiro Arrue : entre avant-garde et tradition [Cat. exp.]. Biarritz, Ville de Biarritz, 2017. p. 79, il.
Berruguete, Ana. Daniel Vázquez Díaz, entre tradición y vanguardia [Tesis doctoral]. Madrid, Universidad Complutense, 2015. p. 300, il.