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If something characterised Benito Barrueta it was his skill in capturing his closest surroundings with supreme delicacy, imprinting a sense of intimacy and chromatic harmony on his paintings, as in this Studio Interior.

Benito Barrueta Asteinza was born in the Torre Ercilla of Bermeo (Bizkaia), where his father had a carving workshop. This led him to show great skill and an inclination towards art from a very young age. After receiving a scholarship from the Bermeo Town Hall, he studied at the Arts and Crafts School of Madrid for six years under the aegis of the painter from Burgos, Marceliano Santamaría. Coupled with his hours upon hours of copying in the Prado Museum, these early experiences imbued him with a powerful influence from the great masters, particularly Velázquez, whom he called "The Colossus".

Driven by his thirst for learning, Barrueta left for Paris in 1900 and stayed at the Bateau Lavoir on Montmartre, where he lived with other prominent artists from the historical avant-gardes. However, he was obsessively loyal to Velázquez and remained immune to his peers' aesthetic innovations: "The 'isms', you know, weren't everything in painting. They were incomplete. This is why I never felt passionate them," he stated in 1945 to Javier de Bengoechea, the future director of the Bilbao Fine Arts Museum.

Barrueta lived in Paris for more than a decade, where he developed a looser kind of painting that shows influences from the works of some French painters like Jean Baptiste Chardin, whom he admired. He participated in four editions of Paris's Salon d'Automne (from 1906 to 1910) and showed his works individually in the Druet gallery in March 1912, where he displayed 51 paintings.

Because of the onset of World War I, in 1914 he moved back permanently to Bermeo, where he worked as the Chair of Drawing in the Nautical and Arts and Crafts School. Reserved in personality, he settled into a simple life far from the artistic and social circuits of the day. However, this withdrawal fostered the development of an exquisite, intimate kind of painting in which he depicted his closest surroundings, with a predominance of interior works, domestic scenes and nearby landscapes.

Studio Interior dates from this period. It was acquired by the museum through grassroots fundraising after the exhibition devoted to the painter put on by the Association of Basque Artists in Bilbao in 1917. This painting is a detailed reflection of a modest room in Barrueta's parents' house, where he set up a studio after returning from Paris. Hanging on the walls are several reproductions from his time as a copyist in Paris; in the background is a desk and a rocking chair. But what stands out more than the painstaking attention to the objects and furniture is the light entering through the window, which warmly diffuses throughout the entire room, filtering the colour range of his palette. The resulting atmospheric harmony immerses us in an intimate atmosphere that seems suspended in time. (Andone Narváez)

Selected bibliography

• Barrueta [Folleto]. Bilbao, Asociación de Artistas Vascos, 1917. s. p., n° cat. 6.
• 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. 38.
• 50 años de pintura vasca, 1885-1935 [Cat. exp.]. Madrid, Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia, 1971. n° cat. 42.
• Pintores y escultores vascos de ayer, hoy y mañana. Bilbao, Editorial La Gran Enciclopedia Vasca, 1973. p. 36.
• Bengoechea, Javier de. Catálogo de arte moderno y contemporáneo del Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao. Bilbao, Banco de Vizcaya, 1980. p. 29. (Con el título Interior)
• Mur Pastor, Pilar. La Asociación de Artistas Vascos. Bilbao, Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao ; Caja de Ahoros Vizcaína, 1985. pp. 62, 252. (Con el título Taller de artista)
• La imagen del artista : retratos de artistas vascos entre dos siglos [Cat. exp.]. Bilbao, Bilbao Bizkaia Kutxa, 1993. p. 13.
• Tradition and modernity in basque painting, 1880-1939 = Tradición y modernidad en la pintura vasca, 1880-1939 [Cat. exp.]. Southampton ; Bilbao, Southampton City Art Gallery ; Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 1997. pp. 36-110, n° cat. 23.
• Juan de la Encina y la trama del Arte Vasco [Folleto]. Bilbao, Museo de Bellas Artes, 1998. s. p.
• Zugaza, Miguel ... [et al.]. Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao : maestros antiguos y modernos. Bilbao, Fundación Bilbao Bizkaia Kutxa = Bilbao Bizkaia Kutxa Fundazioa, 1999.
• Tradición y modernidad en la pintura vasca : en las colecciones del Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao [Cat. exp.]. Valencia, Autoridad Portuaria de Valencia, 1999. p. 28.
• Ángel Larroque : un pintor, el olvido y la memoria [Cat. exp.]. Bilbao, Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2003. p. 42.
• Temporada de opera de la Abao 2004-2005. Bilbao, Govierno Vasco, 2004. p. 7, sin n° cat.
• Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao : guía. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2006. p. 142.
• Musée des Beaux Arts de Bilbao : guide. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2006. p. 142.
• Bilbao Fine Arts Museum : guide. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2006. p. 142.
• Guía Artistas Vascos. Bilbao, Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2008. pp. 62-63.
• Gida Euskal Artistak. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Eder Museoa, 2008. p. 62.
• Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao : guía. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2011. p. 143, n° cat. 100.
• Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa : gida. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2012. p. 143, n° cat. 100.
• Guide Basque Artists. Bilbao, Bilbao Fine Arts Museum, 2012. pp. 61-62, n° cat. 28a.
• Musée des Beaux Arts de Bilbao : guide. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2014. p. 143.
• Bilbao Fine Arts Museum : guide. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2014. p. 143.
• 110 Años 110 Obras [Cat. exp.]. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2018. pp. 214-215, sin n° cat.
• 110 Ans 110 Oeuvres [Cat. exp.]. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2018. pp. 214-215, sin n° cat.
• 110 Urte 110 Artelan [Cat. exp.]. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2018. pp. 214-215, sin n° cat.
• 110 Years 110 Works [Cat. exp.]. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2018. pp. 214-215, 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. 308, 317, n° cat. 174.
• Manterola, Ismael [coord.]; Onaindia, Mikel [coord.]. "Bilbao 1919 : la Exposición Internacional de Pintura y Escultura = Bilbao 1919 : Nazioarteko Pintura eta Eskultura Erakusketa [Recurso electrónico]", Boletin 11 = Bulletina 11. 2019. pp. 52, 59.