ALBERTO ARRÚE VALLE (Bilbao, 1878 - 1944). "Fisherwomen... Lot 9

ALBERTO ARRÚE VALLE (Bilbao, 1878 - 1944). "Fisherwomen in a Biscayan port". Oil on canvas. Signed in the lower right corner. Measurements: 60 x 50 cm. In the port scenes of the painter Alberto Arrúe we can find the most authentic representations of the daily life of men and women linked to the sea. Arrúe immortalised the Biscayan port of Bermeo on several occasions. Here we see the fishmongers characterised with an elegant, almost aristocratic bearing. His great technical mastery is turned towards a frank love for the customs and the rootedness to the land. He had travelled to Paris and was familiar with the avant-garde, which he freely assimilated, combining tradition and modernity. A firm drawing is allied with the rich chromatic gradations which tinge the beautiful port scene with restrained nostalgia. The brother of the other artists José, Ricardo and Ramiro, Alberto Arrúe began his training with Antonio María Lecuona, and later completed it at the School of Arts and Crafts with Guinea and Arámburu. In 1894 he was granted a scholarship to enter the San Fernando School of Fine Arts in Madrid, and subsequently made study trips to Rome, Paris, Marseilles, London, Bordeaux and Argentina. Arrúe specialised in portraying the characters and customs of the Basque Country, and showed his work at official exhibitions such as the National Fine Arts Exhibitions held in Madrid (1901 and 1904), the 4th Bilbao Exhibition of Modern Art (1906), the Hispano-French Exhibition in Saragossa (1919), the 1st Bilbao Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture (1919) and the London Exhibition of Spanish Painting (1920). He also showed his work in galleries in Bordeaux (1920) and Buenos Aires (1922 and 1928), among other cities, including an important personal exhibition held in Bilbao in 1943, a year before his death. He is currently represented in the Museo Provincial de Vitoria and the Diputación de Bizkaia, among other public and private collections.