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Lecuona's importance lies in having been a forerunner of Basque paintings showing popular scenes and customs and a leading art teacher in the 19th-century Basque Country. His first steps in the art of popular scenes and customs date from the early 1860s, in pired by his knowledge of the works of Teniers, whom he copied assiduously in the Prado, and his friendship with the writer Antonio Trueba. The themes of Lecuona's paintings can be identified with Trueba's literature.

Lecuona had been in Bilbao for three years when he painted what may be considered one of his best works, A Villager from Bizkaia at Market. In the Plaza Vieja, opposite the church of San Antón and the old bridge, a countrywoman puts the produce from her market garden up for sale in the market. The scene provides the perfect excuse for a marvellous still life of foodstuffs, animals and all sorts of ceramic and metal pots and pans, and confirms the profound and lasting impression made on Lecuona by the painting of the Spanish Golden Age during the hours he spent in the Prado. (Mikel Lertxundi)

Selected bibliography

• Plasencia, Antonio. Catálogo de las obras de pintura y escultura del Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao. Bilbao, Imprenta Provincial, 1932. p. 22, n° cat. 55. (Con el título Aldeana vizcaína en el mercado, y atribuido a Antonio Lecuona)
• Lasterra, Crisanto de. Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao : catálogo descriptivo : sección de arte antiguo. Bilbao, Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 1969. p. 67, n° cat. 146. (Con el título Aldeana vizcaína en el mercado, y atribuido a LECUONA Y ECHANIZ, Antonio María).
• De Goya a Gauguin : el siglo XIX en el Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao [Cat. exp.]. Bilbao, Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2008. pp. 221-223, n° cat. 32.
• Guía Artistas Vascos. Bilbao, Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2008. pp. 20-21.
• Gida Euskal Artistak. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Eder Museoa, 2008. pp. 20-21.
• Guide Basque Artists. Bilbao, Bilbao Fine Arts Museum, 2012. pp. 20-21, n° cat. 6a.
• Fornells, Montserrat. Gipuzkoako pintore erromantikoak = Pintores románticos guipuzcoanos [Cat. exp.]. Donostia-San Sebastián, Kutxa Fundazioa = Fundación Kutxa, 2013. pp. 26-27, 115, 124.
• Antonio María Lecuona, 1831-1907 : pionero del costumbrismo vasco [Cat. exp.]. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2015. pp. 64-65, 94, il. 22, n° cat. 28.