Painter born in Vitoria on January 15, 1882. Died on August 11, 1936 in Logroño, according to a document provided by the Riojan professor Joaquín León, and not as is usually claimed in San Sebastián.
From the local press ( La Libertad , 16-04-1903) we know some details about his childhood and youth. The son of an industrialist, he had his family's approval to pursue a liberal profession with such uncertain prospects as painting. However, his initial inclinations were toward the priesthood. In this sense, we know that by the time he was twenty-one, he had eight years of ecclesiastical career behind him: three of them in Humanities, another three in Philosophy, and two in Theology, "having obtained an outstanding grade in all subjects."
In 1896 he began to frequent the studio of Pedro López de Robles, painter and professor at the School of Arts and Crafts, visits that he initially combined with his classes at the Seminary. From 1902 he went to the studio of Ignacio Díaz Olano , a teacher who dedicated to him glowing praises, thus encouraging Mauro Ortiz de Urbina to continue in this direction given his artistic qualities. He was also a student of "El Dibujo", the name by which the School of Arts and Crafts was known, then located in El Campillo, on the current Calle de Las Escuelas.
His early artistic talents were also recognized by the Marquis of Urquijo, who granted him protection and support as a patron. In April 1903, after a tough competition with Eduardo Navarro, another young local painter, the Vitoria City Council agreed to grant Mauro a pension to cover part of his studies in Madrid at the San Fernando Academy of Fine Arts. These were also the years in which he frequented the San Sebastián Municipal Museum, and was introduced to Alfonso XIII himself during a visit the monarch made to the aforementioned place.
In March 1904, the Vitorian press reported on Ortiz de Urbina's performance at the San Fernando Academy:
"In the grading of the works carried out by the students in the months of January and February, and in which numerous students from most of the Spanish provinces compete for the rewards that serve as steps for the future, young Mauro has obtained a First Class Diploma of Honor. For three works he presented: two figures and a landscape."
Liberty, 6-03-1904.
His first year at the Academy resulted in four first-class diplomas of merit, two second-class diplomas, and two honors, as well as several first-class honors. At the end of his second year, the teaching staff awarded him a cash prize of 500 pesetas, a reward that included a silver medal and an honors degree for the following academic year, which would undoubtedly save him money on future course fees. Furthermore, given his results, the Vitoria City Council agreed to grant him a new tuition fee to continue his academic training.
In this formative endeavor, the galleries of the Prado Museum satisfied and renewed his pictorial yearnings. Thus, he learned the master classes radiating from the paintings of Velázquez, Murillo, Alonso Cano, Titian, Verón, and, above all, El Greco, a painter for whom he felt true admiration until the end of his days. Mauro Ortiz de Urbina was an excellent copyist, so much so that, years later, he held several solo exhibitions exclusively with copies from the Prado Museum.
In this regard, on the one hand, we point to the twenty oil paintings he exhibited in the Hall of the Association of Basque Artists in Bilbao, from October 12 to November 6, 1915, as attested by historian Pilar Mur in her published work on the Association. A detail in this regard: there is an art critic who has denied this participation, claiming that the person truly exhibiting on that occasion was the Biscayan painter Lucio Ortiz de Urbina. Be that as it may, the Vitorian prepared an exhibition with similar contents—with copies of the Prado—in the auditorium of the School of Arts and Crafts in Vitoria. This would have been in August 1927.
He participated for the first time in the National Exhibition of Fine Arts in May 1906 with the painting Estudio de interior (Interior Study ); a room dimly lit by a lamp in which three portraits appear, two of them belonging to the well-known Vitorians Julio Uruela and Pedro Sarralde. It received an honorable mention. He again submitted works to the calls for entries in 1910, 1912 and 1915. In 1908 he achieved another honorable mention at the Universal Exhibition in Munich. In June 1909, on the 30th, as García D ez suggests, he obtained the title of drawing professor, thus completing his official studies at the San Fernando Academy.