19th-20th Century Spain

Born in Gijon in 1862, Martínez Abades began his education at Instituto Jovellanos in his hometown. There he had the opportunity to make copies from the drawings in the collection of Jovellanos, a leading figure of the Enlightenment in Spain, kept at the school.

In 1880 he continued his studies at the Special School of Painting, Sculpture and Engraving of Madrid, where he remained until 1887. In his years in Madrid he obtained several distinctions at the school and submitted works to the . His painting of the time focused mostly on seascapes and harbour scenes, subject matters that would earn him significant fame throughout his career.

From 1888 to 1890 he furthered his studies in Italy thanks to a scholarship from Diputación de Oviedo. Back in Spain he won a second class medal at the 1890 National Exhibition, the year he opened a studio in Madrid. During that period, he travelled around the coast of Spain, paying particular interest to the northern landscape of the Cantabrian Sea.

As from 1892, and until a few years before his demise, he continued taking part in Spain’s most important competitions, in which he won several distinctions, and also began to participate in international exhibitions. He created illustrations for the Blanco y Negro weekly magazine and also worked as a composer of Asturian folk themes and cuplés, which were released with illustrations of his own drawings, which further increased his fame.

He died on 19 January 1920. Shortly after his death, the Círculo de Bellas Artes of Madrid organised a major exhibition with three hundred works as a tribute.