Gypsies in a Ring - Bilbao Fine Arts Museum

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Gypsies in a Ring

Echevarría, Juan de

Bilbao, 14/04/1875-Madrid, 08/07/1931

Oil on canvas

115 x 146.3 cm

Signature apocryphal: J. Echevarría (bottom right hand corner)

c. 1925

First third of the 20th century

82/123

Acquired in 1962

Despite its formal modernity, part of Echevarría's oeuvre is linked to the intellectual and moral concerns of the Generation of '98. He painted the portraits of almost all the intellectuals, writers and artists associated with the group, and worked in Andalusia and Castile, fascinated in particular with painting the landscapes and cities of Castile. His interest in figures on the sidelines of society, especially gypsies (a theme he shared with Iturrino, Nonell and, in sculpture, with Julio Antonio and Inurria), relates to the aesthetic of the '98 group and its search for "primitive" and emblematic types from the living fabric of the country's social reality.

The colour, including Echevarría's characteristic blues and violets, intensify the painting's expressiveness. In the later, sketchier, Fauve-like Gypsies in a Ring, he concentrates on the self-absorbed figures, women and children in a circle, forming a compact group that excludes the spectator. [Miriam Alzuri]

Selected bibliography

Bengoechea, Javier de. Catálogo de arte moderno y contemporáneo del Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao. Bilbao, Banco de Vizcaya, 1980. p. 52. (Con el título Corro de gitanos).
Siete pintores españoles de la Escuela de París [Cat. exp.]. Madrid, Atenea ; Caja de Madrid, 1993. pp. 94-95
Cat. Camón Aznar Contemporáneo. Zaragoza, Obra Social, 1998. pp. 74-75.
Juan de Echevarría, 1875-1931 [Cat. exp.]. Madrid ; Bilbao, Fundación Mapfre ; Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2004. p. 49, 146, fig. 16.
Gida Euskal Artistak. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Eder Museoa, 2008. pp. 69-70.
Guía Artistas Vascos. Bilbao, Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2008. pp. 69-70.
Guide Basque Artists. Bilbao, Bilbao Fine Arts Museum, 2012. pp. 68-69, n° cat. 31c.
Luces de Bohemia : artistas, gitanos y la definición del mundo moderno [Cat. exp.]. Madrid, Fundación Mapfre ; Tf editores, 2013. pp. 62, 142-143, 222, n° cat. 36.
González de Durana, Javier. Juan Echevarría. Madrid, Fundición Mapfre, 2014. pp. 90, 94, il.
Mendieta Echevarría, Verónica. Juan de Echevarría, 1875-1931 : biografía y catálogo razonado. Santander, Tantín Cantabria, 2020. pp. 120, 374, n° cat. 172.