Painter and writer, a key figure in the Spanish cultural revival of the early 20th century.
Though he never achieved great international renown, he was at his death perhaps the most famous painter in Spain.
The descendant of an old but impoverished family of Santander he attended art school in Madrid for a short period but he was primarily self-taught.
He spent his days in the slums and suburbs of Madrid and in the Cantabrian harbours studying and identifying himself with the most wretched aspects of Spanish life.
These journey were the basis for his gloomy and corrosive literary works, the two volumes of Scenes and Customs of Madrid (1912 and 1918) and for his intense and dramatic paintings.
He first exhibited in 1907 and won medals in 1922, 1929 and 1942.
A man feared but respected by his country he led an isolated life in Madrid despite his honours.
Influenced by the Spanish masters, especially Goya, he painted tragic scenes of urban life, scenes of grief and horror depicted in sombre earth tones and blood reds. He painted in thick pigments, charging his subjects with a garish energy; his subjects include bulls, urban landscapes and in two famous paintings prostitutes in Claudia Place (private collection, Madrid) and literary life in La tertulia de Pombo (a tertulia is an informal conversational gathering, often held in a cafe or restaurant; 1920, Museo Español de Arte Contemporáneo, Madrid).
His influence survives in the school of Madrid.
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