ZULOAGA, Ignacio, Spanish painter: b. Eibar, a town in the Basque provinces. 11;170 He is descended from a family of artistic craftsmen, his father having been a noted damascener (Placid* Zuloaga), and his great grandfather the organizer and director of the royal armory at Madrid. He was at first sent to Rome to study architecture, hut sub sermently turned to painting and spent five years in Paris. Here he devoted himself to the !Iris ate study of the old Spanish masters, and produced his first work which was exhibited at the Paris Salon (1890) Zuloaga then re turned to his native country, and after a long struggle for recognition, rose to the foremost rank as a truly representative Spanish artist.
He modeled his work on the style of the old Spanish masters,. painting directly without preliminary drawings, with strong sure lines and splendid imagination. His works are to be found in the leading cities of Europe and also in the United States. The American Hispanic Society, which presented an exhibit in the United States in 1908, possesses a half portrait of Zuloaga, 'The Gypsy Bull Fight er s Family' and 'Mlle. Lucianue Breval as Carmen.' Canvases that are well known abroad are his 'Avant la Corrida' (Brussels Museum); Won Miguel' (Vienna Gallery); 'Portrait of a Lady' (Pan Museum); 'Ames' (Barcelona); 'Madame Louise' (Venice); 'The Topers' (Berlin). Zuloaga has also painted a number of pictures in propaganda for the arousing of his country to a national consciousness of the evils which beset it, prin cipally from the excessive power of the church and the degrading indulgence in bull-fighting.
The most striking of these are his 'Cardinal' ; 'The Victim of the Feast'; • 'The Idols of the People': 'The Brotherhood of Christ Cruci fied.' In 1917, exhibits were held in several cities in the United States, which won enthu siastic praise. Among those which were partic ularly noticed were 'Portrait of Maurice Bar ris' ; IMy Uncle Daniel and His Family'; 'Anita Ramirez' ; 'Basque Peasant,' and sev eral fine portraits of ladies. The colors used are generally sombre, occasionally heightened by bright contrasting hues. The treatment of the subject is intensely realistic, often brutal in its impassioned sincerity. Yet his work al ways makes, through its imaginative quality, a certain spiritual, almost mystic, esthetic appeal. The choice of detail is deliberate and careful; and the subject matter well con ceived and arranged. Consult Brinton, Chris tian, 'Modern Artists' (New York 1909); Utrillo and Others, 'Five Essays on the Art of Ignacia Zuloaga' (New York 1909); 'Cat alogue of Paintings by Ignacia Zuloaga, Ex hibited at the Hispanic Society of America' (ib.) ; Sargent, J. S. 'Ignacio Znloaga.) and Wyer, R., 'Ignacio Zuloaga's Exhibition' (in International Studio, December 1916).