Francisco Iturrino

Self portrait

Francisco Nicolás Iturrino González (born September 9, 1864 , Santander ; † June 20, 1924 , Cagnes-sur-Mer ) was a Spanish post-impressionist painter of Basque descent. He is sometimes classified as a fauvist .

In 1872 his family moved to Bilbao . In his youth he received his first drawing lessons from his uncle, Elviro González , who was a poet, painter and musician.

He began to study engineering in Liège , but dropped out to study painting at the Académie royale des Beaux-Arts de Bruxelles without the knowledge of his parents . Together with his friend Henri Evenpoel , he continued his studies in Paris .

In 1901 he showed his works in the renowned Parisian gallery Vollard , next to the then unknown Pablo Picasso . He then exhibited his pictures at the Salon d'Automne .

Soon afterwards he returned home and toured Spain, lived for some time in Salamanca and settled in Seville , where he set up his studio. In 1906 he married Marie Joséphine Delwit Schwartz, whom he had met in Belgium.

In search of landscapes, he visited the Basque Country, France and Andalusia. He also painted bullfights as well as folk festivals and portraits of women. From 1911 to 1912 he spent some time in Morocco with Henri Matisse , whom he met in Gustave Moreau's studio . In 1919 he had a major exhibition in the Círculo de Bellas Artes in Madrid .

Iturrino had surgery for gangrene in 1920 and lost a leg the next year. The advancing illness brought him financial difficulties. The art historian Élie Faure helped to organize an exhibition with the pictures of painters who were friends in the Rosenberg Gallery. With the money raised, Iturrino was able to move to Cagnes-sur-Mer in 1922, where he died two years later.

literature

• Petra Joos: Francisco Iturrino (1864-1924) (exhibition catalog), Museo Nicanor Piñole, 1999 ISBN 84-86889-69-3

Commons : Francisco Iturrino  - Collection of Images