ABSTRACT Title of dissertation: IGNACIO ZULOAGA AND THE PROBLEM OF SPAIN Dena Crosson, Doctor of Philosophy, 2009 Dissertation directed by: Professor June Hargrove Department of Art History and Archeology This dissertation examines the career of Ignacio Zuloaga (1870-1945), a highly successful and influential artist during his lifetime, in the context of nationalism and the political and cultural conditions that informed his artistic persona. Positioning himself to both Spanish and foreign audiences as the “painter of Spain,” his style and subject matter simultaneously exploited foreign preconceptions about Spain while serving as a lightning rod for the critical nationalist discourse preoccupying Spanish political and cultural leaders during the first decades of the twentieth century. In the 1910s and 1920s the vernacular nationalism he practiced was not opposed to modernism. But by the 1930s, nationalism had become associated with rising fascist movements both in Europe and in Spain. Through a series of case studies this dissertation problematizes the issue of modernism in art and fills an important gap in the study of the critical role of nationalism for the struggle between tradition and modernity in the arts in early twentieth-century Spain. Chapter One examines Zuloaga’s influence in France through his affiliation with a group of French artists known as La Bande Noire and describes his important contribution to the rediscovery of El Greco in the last years of the nineteenth century. Chapter Two explores Zuloaga’s discovery of the province of Castilla in 1898 as a subject for his work. It charts the significance of Castilla for the nationalist project of the Generation of 98 as well as for the regenerationist Institución Libre de Enseñanza (Free Institute of Learning). Chapter Three maps the growing links between Zuloaga and traditionalist and fascist ideologies, both in France and in Spain, in the 1910s and 1920s. Chapter Four investigates Zuloaga’s career both in the context of the foundation and fall of Spain’s Second Republic (1931-1939) and the Spanish Civil War and its aftermath. Zuloaga’s career provides a significant case study for the gradual alignment, of what became traditionalism, with right-wing political ideology, an alignment by no means necessarily apparent before the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936. IGNACIO ZULOAGA AND THE PROBLEM OF SPAIN by Dena Crosson Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Maryland, College Park in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2009 Advisory Committee Professor June Hargrove, Chair Professor William Pressly Professor Marjorie Venit Associate Professor Renée Ater Associate Professor José M. Naharro © Copyright by Dena Crosson 2009 Disclaimer The dissertation document that follows has had referenced material removed in respect for the owner’s copyright. A complete version of this document, which includes said referenced material, resides in the University of Maryland, College Park’s library collection. - i - Acknowledgements I am grateful for the generous support I have received during the course of completing this dissertation. My advisor, June Hargrove, provided constant advice and pertinant feedback all along the way. I received support for research trips to Spain from the Program for Cultural Cooperation Between Spain’s Ministry of Culture and United States Universities. While in Spain I was fortunate to work with Don Mariano Gomez de Caso in Segovia, whom I will always regard with affection and respect. I am grateful for the generosity of the Zuloaga family, who welcomed me into their home in Zumaya and gave me access to family archives. I thank the staff at the Biblioteca Nacional in Madrid and the Hispanic Society of America in New York; they were extremely helpful. During my research trips to Spain I was lucky to have the friendship of Ted Krasny and Hortensia Celadilla. I am particularly indebted to Jorgelina Orfila, whose conversation stimulated and inspired me. Beth Baker, Sara Taber and Bruce Johansen were patient listeners and excellent friends. Ron Earnest helped with an occasional tricky translation. My family has been a rock of support during the long process of completing this dissertation. I thank my daughters for putting up with me; my sister and brothers, for their love and loyalty. This dissertation is dedicated to my parents. -ii - Table of Contents Acknowledgements………………………………………………………….. ii List of Figures……………………………………………………………….. iv-v Introduction……………………………………………………………….… 1 Chapter One: Searching for Identity………………………………………… 18 Chapter Two: Establishing a Brand…………………………………………. 57 Chapter Three: Riding the Wave……………………………………………. 88 Chapter Four: Blood and War……………………………………………….. 121 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………… 157 Bibliography………………………………………………………………….. 161 Figures…………………………………………………………………………176 -iii - List of Figures Chapter One i.i Ignacio Zuloaga Portrait of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Morice , 1898 i.ii El Greco Burial of Count Orgaz , 1586 i.iii Ignacio Zuloaga, Baile Gitana , 1904 i.iv Jules Worms, Danse à Grenade i.v Ignacio Zuloaga Víspera de la Corrida , 1898 i.vi Ignacio Zuloaga Portrait of Emile Bernard , 1897 i.vii Ignacio Zuloaga Mi Tío y mis Primas, 1898 i.viii Emile Bernard Musiciens Espagnoles , 1897 i.ix Félix Vallotton Les Cinq Peintres , 1902 i.x Charles Cottet Les Victimes de la Mer , 1898 i.xi El Greco Apocalyptic Vision , 1608-14 i.xii Quatre Gats Poster , 1897 i.xiii Pablo Picasso Bullfight , 1900 i.xiv Pablo Picasso Entry into the Arena , 1900 i.xv El Greco Madonna and Child with Saints Martin and Agnes , 1597-1599 i.xvi Pablo Picasso Yo, El Greco, 1899 i.xvii Diego Velásquez Los Borrachos , 1629 i.xviii Edouard Manet Old Musicians , 1862 i.xix Pablo Picasso Les Saltimbanques , 1905 i.xx Ignacio Zuloaga El Alcalde de Torquemada , 1905 i.xxi Pablo Picasso La Vie , 1903 i.xxii Interior of home of Chester Dale Chapter Two ii.i Ignacio Zuloaga Marqués de Villamarcial , 1892 ii.ii Ignacio Zuloaga Woman of Alcalá de Guadaira , 1896 ii.iii Ignacio Zuloaga Gregorio el Botero , 1906 ii.iv Ignacio Zuloaga Las Brujas de San Millán , 1907 ii.v Ignacio Zuloaga Mujeres de Sepúlveda , 1909 ii.vi Ignacio Zuloaga La Hilandera , 1911 ii.vii Ignacio Zuloaga Cristo de la Sangre , 1911 ii.viii Diego Velásquez The Spinners , 1657 ii.ix Ignacio Zuloaga Paisaje de Pancorbo , 1917 -iv - Chapter Three iii.i Ignacio Zuloaga Portrait of Barrès , 1913 iii.ii El Greco View of Toledo , c. 1600 iii.iii Ignacio Zuloaga Portrait of Elemir Bourges , 1907 iii.iv Poster for El Amor Brujo iii.v Francisco Goya El Pelele , 1792 iii.vi Pablo Picasso design for costume for Le Tricorne , 1919 iii.vii Pablo Picasso design for costume for Le Tricorne , 1919 iii.viii Pablo Picasso design for costume for Le Tricorne , 1919 iii.ix Pablo Picasso design for costume for Parade , 1917 iii.x Pablo Picasso design for costume for Parade , 1917 iii.xi Pablo Picasso design for costume for Parade , 1917 iii.xii Pablo Picasso design for curtain for Le Tricorne , 1919 iii.xiii Pablo Picasso design for set for Le Tricorne , 1919 iii.xiv Ignacio Zuloaga design for set for El Retablo del Maese Pedro , 1926 Chapter Four iv.i Ernesto Giménez Caballero Federico García Lorca , 1928 iv.ii Ignacio Zuloaga Siege of Alcázar , 1936 iv.iii Ignacio Zuloaga Toledo in Pale Colors , 1932 iv.iv Pablo Picasso Guernica , 1937 iv.v Pablo Picasso El Sueño y Mentira de Franco, 1937 iv.vi Ignacio Zuloaga Portrait of Francisco Franco , 1939-1940 iv.vii Valle de los Caídos iv.viii Crucifix at main altar of Basílica of Valle de los Caídos iv.xi Ignacio Zuloaga My Friends 1920-1936 - v - Introduction Ignacio Zuloaga (1870-1945) was the toast of the town at his 1925 exhibition at the Reinhardt Gallery in New York. The show of 52 paintings drew thousands of visitors and glowing reviews during its month-long run. 1 Zuloaga was fêted at a gala dinner hosted by the Spanish ambassador and met President Calvin Coolidge at the White House. He was no stranger to such success. Zuloaga was a Basque-born painter with little academic training celebrated in Europe and the Americas for his vivid images of Andalusían themes such as bullfighters and gypsies, as well as for his dark depictions of still-backward rural Spain. His style and subject matter simultaneously exploited foreign preconceptions about Spain while serving as a lightning rod for the critical nationalist discourse preoccupying Spanish political and cultural leaders during the first decades of the twentieth century. Zuloaga’s life was punctuated by a series of enormous political upheavals. The defeat in the 1898 Spanish American War was a shattering event that engendered rising nationalist and separatist movements in Spain during the first years of the twentieth century. The response of Spain’s small intelligentsia to the loss of that nation’s last colonies was an effort at self-examination in an attempt to define the Spanish nation and spanishness itself ( hispanidad ) as a means of bringing regeneration and cultural cohesiveness to a highly disordered, fractured nation. Zuloaga’s self-identification as “the 1 Enrique Lafuente Ferrari, The Life and Work of Ignacio Zuloaga , 3 rd edition, (Madrid: Planeta, 1972/1991) 337-339. Philip MacMahon, “Some Aspects of Ignacio Zuloaga,” Art Bulletin , 7, 1925, 117. “The applause [for the exhibition]…continued….when 75,000 people visited the galleries at Fifth Avenue and 57 th Street.” - 1 - painter of Spain” was a deliberate strategy that placed him squarely within this debate as to the nature, quality and condition of the Spanish nation. He was affiliated by friendship with members of the Generation of 98, a group of writers and poets, who advocated a romantic idealization of the Spanish landscape and character, based on inward, nostalgic celebrations of Spain’s Golden Age. The 98ers, while liberal in their thinking, did not advocate any specific political program.