Their father, Lucas Arrue, was an art collector who sold his collections (including a Goya) to pay for the artistic training of his sons.

Living in Montparnasse, he became an associate of his countrymen Ignacio Zuloaga and Paco Durrio, as well as the sculptor Antoine Bourdelle, who became a close friend.

He often, however, returned to the Basque Country, particularly to Saint-Jean-de-Luz, where he settled in 1917 and where he found his main inspiration for landscapes, portraits, and everyday scenes.

The academic Hélène Saule-Sorbé wrote: "The colours of Ramiro Arrue's brush are a trilogy: green, white, red.

The permanence of heraldry, a sign of belonging, the palette of a country of green hills, of bright white houses whose roofs and woodwork is red.