19th-20th Century Spanish

Born in Bilbao on 21 April 1855 to a humble family, his early artistic calling led him to attend drawing and painting classed by Ramón Elorriaga (1833-1898) and Antonio María Lecuona (1831-1907) where he took his first steps in nineteenth-century genre painting.

In 1873, thanks to the patronage of Manuel María de Gortázar, a local businessman and politician, he moved to Madrid to further his training. There he enrolled at Escuela Especial de Pintura, Escultura y Grabado (Special Painting, Sculpture and Engraving School), at the time the city’s most important private art school, whose director was the renowned painter Federico de Madrazo (1815-1894). The following year Gortázar funded Anselmo Guinea a trip to Rome to continue his studies. There, in the Italian capital, he assimilated classical teachings and the influence of Mariano Fortuny (1838-1874).

Upon his return to Bilbao in 1876 he was appointed Professor of Figurative Drawing at the city’s School of Arts and Crafts. The post, coupled with the knowledge he had accumulated to date, would prove instrumental in his contribution to the modernisation of late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century Basque painting.

In December 1881 he moved to Rome in the company of his wife, where he would remain for six years. This would be his second stay in the Italian capital, where he developed an intense artistic activity and began to receive many commissions.

In mid-1887 Guinea returned to the Basque Country and settled in Lekeitio. He once again took up Basque genre painting, which he had left behind during his time in Rome, and one could now begin to discern his first steps towards modernity.

In 1894 the artist travelled to Paris for the first time, in the company of Manuel Losada (1865-1949). There, he became acquainted with the Impressionist movement and discovered the social realism of Gustave Courbet (1819-1877), a critical event that would condition his future style. In 1895 he moved to Bilbao. Three years later his painting Responso won a Third Medal at the Barcelona International Exposition. During this period, he obtained significant distinctions at several events of the annual , while also being appointed to relevant posts.

In 1902, his involvement in the decoration of the interior of the Palacio Provincial de Vizcaya took him back to Rome yet again, this time in the company of his two sons, where he remained for two years. From that moment onwards his production underwent a significant shift towards Symbolism.

Anselmo Guinea died in Bilbao on 10 June 1906. One year later, a survey exhibition of his life’s work was organised as an homage by Diputación de Vizcaya, with the support of many of his friends, artists and writers.