[1][2] Given his aptitude for drawing and sculpture, the Vizcaya Regional Council offered him a scholarship to study in Rome, which he declined owing to the incompatibility of his faith and morals with such a residency.

[1][2] In 1865, his first poem was published and he began to write poetry for the magazine Euskara at the request of the publication's creator and editor, Arturo Campión, whom he visited at his home in Otxandio.

The two men discussed philology and language, and Azkue took Arrese's opinions into consideration when writing; he mentioned him among the Biscayan collaborators in the introduction to the Diccionario Vasco-Español-Francés.

Arrese also maintained epistolary relationships with Sabino Arana, Ramón de la Sota, Juan Carlos Guerra Menéndez Pelayo and Emilia Pardo Bazán.

[1] In his old age, a heart condition made him abandon his sculpting trade, and he survived his final years with the financial aid of a group of wealthy Basque nationalists.

[1] According to Mikel Aizpuru Murua, "his work, in addition to being full of Biblical reminiscences and the familiar themes of the fueros, traditional values and love for the earth, stands out for two reasons: first, the radical, agonising confrontation between disappearing traditional Basque society and external forces, be they Castile or Spain; and second, the emphasis placed on the Basque language, the symbol and bastion of Vasconia, inseparable from the issue of regionality.