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Sculptor, goldsmith and potter, Francisco Durrio played a major role in spreading the synthetist word preached by Gauguin and his circle, who argued in favour of the subjective treatment of colour and greater intensity of expression as opposed to the mimetic representation of the real world. He trained in Bilbao, where his family settled shortly after the artist¿s birth, and Madrid, although in 1889 he moved to Paris. Many Spanish artists in the city came into contact with him, including Iturrino, Zuloaga, Echevarría, Hugué and Picasso. His admiration for Gauguin, with whom he had a close professional and personal relationship, was a key factor in the definition of his own art, which tends to combine elements from Modernism and Symbolism.

As a gold and silversmith, Durrio, who had first presented his jewels at the 1904 Paris Salon d¿Automne, basically applied different types of burnishing to the two metals. He made buckles, rings, broaches, pins and necklaces, chiselled in silver, some with semi-precious stones, in which he recreated a range of ornamental motifs in the Modernist and Symbolist styles. [M.A.M.] [M.A.]

Selected bibliography

• Francisco Durrio, 1868-1940 : sobre las huellas de Gauguin [Cat. exp.]. Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2013. p. 139, n° cat. 125.