Antonio Ortiz Echagüe

Antonio Ortiz Echagüe (15 October 1883, Guadalajara, Spain – 8 January 1942, Buenos Aires, Argentina) was a Spanish costumbrista painter, who spent much of his career in other countries.

Alongside Ignacio Zuloaga and Joaquin Sorolla, he forms part of the trio of aces of Spanish costumbrist painting at the turn of the twentieth century.

During the summer of 1900 he went back home and painted his first important canvas "La misa de Narvaja" inside the church of a little village in the Spanish province of Alava.

[1] Echague was a cosmopolitan artist and wide traveller, who focused on the representation of popular types from the different countries where he lived (Spain, Italy, Holland, France, Morocco, and Argentina).

He captured figures directly from real life, true to size and without idealisations nor folklore, in a style characterised by precise draftsmanship, thick brushwork and a spectacular handling of light and colour.

In 1991 the Spanish scholar and art teacher Montserrat Fornells Angelats presented her Ph.D. about Antonio Ortiz Echagüe at the University of Basque Country.

Two years later, another museum dedicated to him was opened at Atzara, Sardinia, Italy: Museo d´Arte Moderna e Contemporanea Antonio Ortiz Echagüe (MAMA).