BILBAO – Begun nearly a century ago, the Bilbao Fine Arts Museum’s valuable collection of 19th century paintings and sculptures today numbers more than three hundred artworks. The painstaking selection of 66 artworks by 47 artists included in the exhibition covers a remarkable variety of modes of artistic expression including the cabinet painting, realist landscapes, portraits and paintings of popular and historical scenes. The selection includes artworks by some leading names in the international art world, from Goya and Gauguin to Sorolla and Zuloaga . Also included are works by a substantial group of Basque artists, such as Guiard, Regoyos, Iturrino and Zuloaga, among others.
The collection of the present Bilbao Fine Arts Museum originated with the merger of the collections from the first Museo de Bellas Artes, inaugurated in 1914, and the Museo de Arte Moderno (Museum of Modern Art) in 1924. Contributions from local institutions, from private individuals and the Museum’s own acquisitions helped to shape the essential profile of the collection and oriented its subsequent growth.
The original collection was a mixture of major legacies, bequests and donations such as the ones received from Laureano de Jado, Antonio Plasencia and Manuel Losada, together with contributions from a number of institutions.
Notable for the lengthy period it covers (from the 12th century to the present day) and the extraordinary variety of art works acquired since its inception, the Bilbao Fine Arts Museum collection currently boasts more than six thousand works including paintings, sculptures, drawings, engravings and objects from the decorative arts.
The origins of the present day Museum lie in the original Fine Arts Museum founded in 1908 and opened to the public in 1914, and in the Museum of Modern Art inaugurated in 1924. Both Museums were definitively merged, with their respective collections, in 1945, when what is now the old building was constructed. The modern building was added in 1970 and in 2001 a major refit gave the Museum its present profile. Over the last one hundred years, the Museum has been moulded by local people, artists and authorities, with major acquisitions and donations of artworks adding gradually to the collection and providing the core for the Museum’s steady, uninterrupted growth.
Today, the outstanding Bilbao Fine Arts Museum collection has more than seven thousand works, including paintings, sculptures, works on paper and the applied arts ranging in time from the 12th century to the present day. Besides many major early and Old Master works, it also has a broad sampling of modern and contemporary art, placing particular emphasis on paintings from the Spanish and Flemish schools, together with a major collection of works by Basque artists.
