Portrait of the Painter Díaz Caneja - Bilbao Fine Arts Museum

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Portrait of the Painter Díaz Caneja

Olasagasti, Jesús

San Sebastián, 20/12/1907-San Sebastián, 05/08/1955

Oil on canvas

80.5 x 70.5 cm

J. Olasagasti (in the inscription on the left hand side)

c. 1930

Second quarter of the 20th century

82/168

Acquired in 1932

If a work can provide the highest measure of its author, this work is Portrait of the Painter Díaz Caneja painted by Jesús Olasagasti, which was exhibited in the Architecture and Modern Painting Exhibition held in San Sebastián in 1930. Yet it also attests to Daniel Vázquez Díaz's instruction of the Basque painters, as noted by the critics of their day, and especially of those who stood out in the subsequent years in the Exhibition of New Artists from Gipuzkoa, where Olasagasti (who had been at Vázquez Díaz's studio in Madrid since 1924) was a prominent presence between 1923 and 1926.

A long look at Zurbarán, Cézanne and Juan Gris and an extended sojourn in Paris, defined Daniel Vázquez Díaz's modern style. Updating landscape and portrait painting in Spain, Vázquez Díaz believed that a good portrait should be like a "painted biography". Even though he was not a cubist, his "geometric concern with architecturalising form and colour" was inspired by both Cézanne and Cubism. And we can see this geometric concern in this portrait of Juan Manuel Díaz Caneja.

Using precise biographical features, Olasagasti tells the story of his friend who left architecture for painting. His fellow disciple in Vázquez Díaz's atelier poses before in academic drawing with his pencil visible while gazing outside the painting, perhaps examining the landscape or the behaviour of light. The luminous paint, with a predominance of ochres, greys and pink, seems to allude to the sitter's preferences as well.

His body's slight tilt toward the left in the fashion of Cézanne is balanced with the vertical and horizontal lines that structure the painting, and the treatment by planes accentuates the sense of solidity.

This portrait, which is visibly related to Vázquez Díaz's style, nonetheless reveals Olasagasti's own personal style after he admired the Valori plastici movement and the painting of Giotto, Piero della Francesca and Caravaggio on his trip to Italy in 1926.

Jesús Olasagasti also experimented with other directions including Futurism, Cubism and Expressionism, according to Crisanto Lasterra (1928). I believe that his peak came between the late 1920s and early 1930s with works like this one and Portrait of José Manuel Aizpurua, Little Green Lady and Mirentxu Olasagasti (Yoyo Girl).

Educated in a bourgeois family, he joined José Manuel Aizpurua, Juan Cabanas Erauskin, Carlos Ribera and Eduardo Lagarde, among others, in a group of friends who brought an avant-garde ambiance to San Sebastián in the transition from the 1920s to 1930s, who shifted towards fascism in 1933. He participated in the avant-garde art exhibitions (1930 and 1931) in his city and in founding the GU ("Us" in Basque) society, which was officially launched with a speech by Sánchez Mazas in 1934. After the war, he contributed to the revival of the Exhibition of New Artists from Gipuzkoa and painted numerous portraits, with uneven results. (Adelina Moya Valgañón)

Selected bibliography

  • Exposición organizada con motivo de la concesión, por la Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, de la Medalla de Honor al Ayuntamiento de la Villa [Folleto]. Bilbao, Ayuntamiento, 1952. n° cat. 49.
  • 50 años de pintura vasca, 1885-1935 [Cat. exp.]. Madrid, Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia, 1971. n° cat. 100.
  • 50 años de pintura vasca, 1885-1935 [Cat. exp.]. San Sebastián, Museo de San Telmo, 1972. s. p., n° cat. 69.
  • Bengoechea, Javier de. Catálogo de arte moderno y contemporáneo del Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao. Bilbao, Banco de Vizcaya, 1980. p. 89. (Con el título Retrato del pintor Díez Caneja).
  • Arte y artistas vascos de los años 30 = 30 urtearen hamarkadako euskal artea eta artistak [Cat. exp.]. Donostia-San Sebastián, Gipuzkoako Foru Aldundia = Diputación Foral de Guipuzcoa, 1986. p. 190.
  • Tesoros del Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao : pintura, 1400-1939 [Cat. exp.]. Madrid, El Viso, 1989. pp. 194-195, n° cat. 80.
  • Kortadi Olano, Edorta. Euskal margolariak Aurrezki Kutxen bildumetan IV = Pintores vascos en las colecciones de las Cajas de Ahorros IV. Bilbao, Bilbao Bizkaia Kutxa ; Gipuzkoa Donostia Kutxa ; Caja Vital Kutxa, 1994. pp. 25, 30.
  • Realismo Mágico : Franz Roh y la pintura europea 1917-1936 [Cat. exp.]. Valencia, IVAM Institut Valencià d'Art Modern, 1997. pp. 160, 253
  • De Picasso a Bacon : arte contemporáneo en las colecciones del Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao [Cat. exp.]. Segovia, Museo de Arte Contemporánea Esteban Vicente, 1999. pp. 68-69.
  • Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao : guía. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2006. p. 171.
  • Musée des Beaux Arts de Bilbao : guide. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2006. p. 171.
  • Bilbao Fine Arts Museum : guide. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2006. p. 171.
  • López de Sosoaga, María Jesús. Jesús Olasagasti 1907-1955 [Cat. exp.]. Donostia-San Sebastán, Fundación Kutxa, 2007. p. 19.
  • Guía Artistas Vascos. Bilbao, Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2008. pp. 116-117.
  • Gida Euskal Artistak. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Eder Museoa, 2008. pp. 116-117.
  • Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao : guía. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2011. p. 155, n° cat. 110.
  • Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa : gida. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2012. p. 155, n° cat. 110.
  • Guide Basque Artists. Bilbao, Bilbao Fine Arts Museum, 2012. pp. 116-117, n° cat. 61b.
  • Musée des Beaux Arts de Bilbao : guide. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2014. p. 155.
  • Bilbao Fine Arts Museum : guide. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2014. p. 155.
  • Rallo, Paco. "Artistas y sus vínculos con Aragón", Aragón turístico y monumental, n° 383. 12/017. p. 40, il.
  • 110 Ans 110 Oeuvres [Cat. exp.]. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2018. pp. 250-251, sin n° cat.
  • 110 Años 110 Obras [Cat. exp.]. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2018. pp. 250-251, sin n° cat.
  • 110 Urte 110 Artelan [Cat. exp.]. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2018. pp. 250-251, sin n° cat.
  • 110 Years 110 Works [Cat. exp.]. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2018. pp. 250-251, sin n° cat.
  • Bilboko Museoaren alfabetoa = El alfabeto del Museo de Bilbao = The alphabet of the Bilbao Museum = L'alphabet du Musée de Bilbao [Cat. exp.]. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2018. pp. 88, 96, 101, n° cat. 43.
  • Berruguete, Ana. Daniel Vázquez Díaz, entre tradición y vanguardia [Tesis doctoral]. Madrid, Universidad Complutense, 2015. pp. 313, 332, il.
  • Menchu Gal : margotzeko bizi, bitzitzen margotu : 1919-2019 [Cat. exp.]. Madril, Menchu Gal Fundazioa, 2019. p. 83, il.
  • Menchu Gal : vivir pintando, pintar viviendo : 1919-2019 [Cat. exp.]. Madrid, Fundación Menchu Gal, 2019. p. 83, il.