19th-20th Century. Spanish

Born in Éibar on 26 July 1870 to a family dedicated to the applied arts, Zuloaga began studying engineering although he would soon quit to devote himself to painting. His early training in art was at the Prado Museum, painting copies of works by old masters, particularly Diego Velázquez (1599-1660) and El Greco (1541-1614).

In 1889 he travelled for the first time to Rome, and from there to Paris, where he settled in Montmartre and started studying at the Académie Libre under Henri Gervex (1852-1929). In Paris he met all the revolutionary painters of that time, like Paul Gauguin (1848-1903), Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901), Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) and Maxime Dethomas (1867-1929), whose sister he would marry ten years later.

In 1890 he frequented the circle of Catalan artists based in the French capital, which included Ramon Casas (1866-1932), Miquel Utrillo (1862-1934) and Santiago Rusiñol (1861-1931). At that time, he began to enjoy much success in Paris, exhibiting regularly at the salon of the and the .

Zuloaga alternated his time in Paris with journeys throughout Spain, where he gained significant popularity. He won many decorations in national events, with a particular mention for the First Medal at the 4th Exposition of Fine Arts and Artistic Industries won in Barcelona in 1898 with the work Víspera de la corrida, which was purchased by Santiago Rusiñol for Museu del Cau Ferrat.

As from 1898, his work began to show an influence of the ideology of the Generation of ’98, with Zuloaga focusing on a quest for the autochthonous roots of the Castilian landscape and people and he began to frequently visit Segovia. Meanwhile, his reputation as a portrait artist spread from Paris to the USA, where he gained celebrity and numerous important clients. From this period onwards, he had many highly successful international exhibitions.

With the outbreak of the Great War he returned to the Basque Country and settled in Zumaya (Guipuzcoa). In his home there, now turned into a museum, he kept his important collection of artworks, among which stand out works by Francisco de Goya (1746-1828) or El Greco.

In the final years of his career, thanks to the great prestige he had accrued, he devoted himself mostly to commissions. After the proclamation in Spain of the Republic in 1931, he was appointed President of the Board of Trustees of the Museum of Modern Art of Madrid. In 1938 he won a medal at the Venice Biennale. Zuloaga died in Madrid on 31 October 1945 at the age of seventy five.