Ignacio Zuloaga was probably the most important Basque painter at the end of the 19th century, and beginning of the 20th.

1870. Born in Éibar (Guipúzkoa), he worked from an early age in the workshop run by his father, Plácido, a noted damascene worker, and moved later to Madrid, Rome and Paris, where he completed his apprenticeship.

1888. He painted his first well-known pieces, Fuente de Éibar and El ciego de Arrate, inj his home town.

1890. He exhibited with Gaugin, Van Gogh, Degas and Toulouse-Lautrec (who was a great friend). The Basque painter soon became a major figure in the generation of 98. "Zuloaga extracted, from his motifs, the maximum capacity for expression, magnifying them to a scale of true artistic and human grandeur ", says the renowned historian and academic Lafuente Ferrari. His brilliant international career, something very difficult for a painter in those years, began in 1898. In its Paris Exposition, the French State acquired one of his paintings for the Luxembourg Museum. He painted in Madrid, and at the end of summer, arrived in Segovia, where he set up a ceramics workshop with his uncle Daniel.

1899. First Medal in the Barcelona Art Exposition.

1900. He exhibited in the Universal Exhibition in Paris. The Spanish jury rejected his work, and it was acquired by the Belgian State.

1901. He was rewarded with the Gold Medal at the International Exhibition in Dresden, and began a long, intimate friendship with the poet Rainer María Rilke. Le París Ilustré devoted a complete issue to him; the 98 Group organised a homage to him in Madrid, and the Berlin Opera commissioned him with the scenography for Carmen.

1903. He began his relationship with the sculptor Auguste Rodin, which with the passing of years was to become and intimate friendship.

1905. The Basque painter started an interesting exchange of correspondence with the young Picasso, which would last some time.

1909. After exhibiting in all the major European cities, he presented his work in New York with remarkable public, critical and commercial success. His exhibition in the Spanish Society introduced him as the great Spanish painter among in American society

1911. Major Prize at the Universal Exhibition of Fine Arts in Rome.

1914. He bought Goya's birthplace in Fuendetodos and inaugurated the House-Museum in Zumaia. In the years of the First World War, he continued painting in Zumaia, where Spain's intelligentsia, Ortega y Gasset, Valle-Inclán, Unamuno, Pío Baroja and Marañón, visited him periodically.

1915. Exhibition in Éibar, to raise funds for orphans from the First World War.

1917. The New York exhibition again enjoys considerable critical and commercial success.

1920. He inaugurated the Goya monument in Fuendetodos, and exhibited in the Royal Academy in London.

1922. He exhibited in Granada at the First Contest of Cante Jondo organised by his close friend Falla. Among others, Rusiñol, Gómez de la Serna, Neville, Legendre, "Cagancho" and García Lorca attended.

1925. He organised a charity bull-fight in Zumaia. Belmonte fought.

1926. After his major exhibition in the Círculo de Bellas Artes in Madrid, he acquired Pedraza Castle.

1928. He decorated and scenified El Retablo de Maese Pedro by Manuel de Falla. He was inspired by the Vizcaínos inn in Segovia.

1931. The Madrid Modern Art Musem set up a permanent room devoted exclusively to Zuloaga.

1936. The Civil War began. Zuloaga withdrew to his study in Zumaia, concentrating on his wor, and painted one of his most important portraits, of his great friend the sculptor Beobide.

1938. His wor at the Biennial of Venice earned unanymous renown and was awarded with the Grand Prize.

On the night of the 31st of October, 1945, he died in his study in Las Vistillas in Madrid, finally resting in San Sebastián.