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In Hero and Leander Mogrobejo recreates a Greek legend that depicts the tragedy surrounding two young lovers at the Hellespont strait, now in Turkey: Leander, who lived in Abydos on the Asian shore would swim across the waters every night to meet Hero, on the European shore, guided by the lighted torch she held for him. One stormy night Leander's strength failed him and he drowned; the waves swept his body to the city where Hero lived; upon learning the news, she plunged into the sea from the tower and met her death.

The story of Hero and Leander, described by Ovid in his Heroides and extremely popular in European art and literature well into the 19th century, was recreated by writers such as Boscán, Quevedo, Keats, Marlowe and Byron, and by painters such as Regnier, Rubens and Turner. This mature work by Mogrobejo reveals the artist's skill as a sculptor: a precise modelling, a delicate use of chiaroscuro, a concise study of anatomy and a continuity of line and movement. The sculptor has chosen to depict the moment of greatest emo tional intensity of the story, when the two lovers lie side by side, in death united, surrounded by waves.

Although Mogrobejo began his artistic apprenticeship in his native Bilbao, he trained as a sculptor in Paris-where he lived from 1894 to 1897-and, above all, in Italy. He first travelled to Italy in 1902 thanks to a grant awarded by the Provincial Council of Bizkaia, settling in Rome and then Florence. In addition to these cities Mogrobejo also spent periods working in Barcelona, Graz (Austria) and Munich, where his oeuvre drew the attention of a bourgeois clientele for which he produced a significant number of portraits and smallsize decorative figures. Hero and Leander was modelled in Rome in the spring of 1904 and cast in bronze three years later at a Florentine workshop, a process the sculptor found quite trying as he was by then seriously ill. [Miriam Alzuri]

Selected bibliography

• Encina, Juan de la. Nemesio Mogrobejo : su vida y sus obras, 1875-1910. Bilbao, Sociedad Bilbaína de Artes Gráficas, 1910. pp. 31-37, 51-52, 75.
• Pintores y escultores vascos de ayer, hoy y mañana : Nemesio Mogrobejo. Bilbao, La Gran Enciclopedia Vasca, vol. IX, 1975. pp. 303, 307-310.
• Alix, Josefina. Escultura española : 1900-1936. Madrid, Ministerio de Cultura, 1985. p. 276.
• Arenaza Urrutia, José María. Nemesio Mogrobejo. Bilbao, Caja de Ahorros Vizcaina, 1988. pp. 23-30.
• Plástica y texto en torno al 98. Madrid, Comunidad de Madrid, Consejería de Educación y Cultura, 1998. pp. 128-129.
• Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao : guía. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2006. p. 139.
• Musée des Beaux Arts de Bilbao : guide. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2006. p. 139.
• Bilbao Fine Arts Museum : guide. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2006. p. 139.
• De Goya a Gauguin : el siglo XIX en el Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao [Cat. exp.]. Salamanca, Caja Duero, 2006. pp. 266-267, n° cat. 69.
• De Goya a Gauguin : el siglo XIX en el Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao [Cat. exp.]. Valencia, Caja Duero, 2006. pp. 266-267, n° cat. 69.
• 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. 562-564, n° cat. 128.
• Guía Artistas Vascos. Bilbao, Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2008. pp. 66-68.
• Gida Euskal Artistak. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Eder Museoa, 2008. pp. 66-67.
• Forma, signo y realidad : escultura española, 1900-1935 [Cat. exp.]. Pamplona, Funación Museo Oteiza Fundazio Museoa, 2010. p. 23.
• Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao : guía. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2011. p. 139, n° cat. 96.
• Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa : gida. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2012. p. 139, n° cat. 96.
• Guide Basque Artists. Bilbao, Bilbao Fine Arts Museum, 2012. pp. 65-67, n° cat. 30b.
• Musée des Beaux Arts de Bilbao : guide. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2014. p. 139.
• Bilbao Fine Arts Museum : guide. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2014. p. 139.
• Launes Villagrasa, Joan ... [et al.]. Julio Antonio, 1889-1919 : un segle després = un siglo después. Barcelona, Viena Edicions, 2018. pp. 116, 119.
• Eskauriaza, Mikel; Mendizabal, Asier; Jaio, Miren. Risveglio : Despertar en el Museo. [s.l.], -zko, 2020. p. 13.
• Eskauriaza, Mikel; Mendizabal, Asier; Jaio, Miren. Risveglio : Museoan itzartzea. [s.l.], -zko, 2020. p. 13.