Port of Bilbao

Juan Martínez Abades is a good example of the type of intellectual that emerged in Spanish society during the Restoration. An excellent painter of seascapes, a well-known illustrator and a successful composer and lyricist of cuplés, Juan Martínez Abades’ artistic education commenced when he began studying for his baccalaureate at the Institut Jovellanos in Gijón. It was there that he started to develop his extraordinary talent for painting, which resulted in him travelling to Madrid in 1882 to enrol at the city’s Special School for Painting, Sculpture and Engraving, where he took private classes with José Gragera and Ignacio Suárez-Llanos. During 1888-89 he lived in Italy, where he painted one of his best-known works: El viático a bordo (Viaticum on board). He submitted this work for Spain’s National Exhibition in 1890, and obtained second prize and wide recognition among the Spanish art world. At that time, Martínez Abades was particularly known for his seascapes, which were his most common subject – both in oils and in drawings – and which demonstrated his indisputable technical skill and mastery.