Exhibition honours Spanish artist Mariano Bertuchi’s vision of Morocco

An exhibition in the Moroccan city of Tetouan explores life in early 20th century Morocco, captured through the artwork of late Spanish painter Mariano Bertuchi. The monthlong show at the Cervantes Institute opened on Tuesday under the title, "Mariano Bertuchi, Moroccan Scenes."

The exhibition marks the 70th death anniversary of Bertuchi who was born in 1884 and passed away in 1955. Bertuchi was fascinated by the Moroccan culture during his travel through the North African country in the early 1900s. The lives of people in Morocco, streets scenes, markets, buildings and landscape became the subject of his work.

“He managed in a certain way to transmit (show) the essence of Moroccan people” said exhibition curator Juan Ramón Roca, who added that Bertuchi succeeded showing the life of Morocco and its people to the Spanish public.

The exhibition features 68 artworks Bertuchi painted between 1903 and 1927, capturing daily life in the country at that time. The artist who hails from Granada eventually settled down in Tetouan, where he died. He has left behind a legacy that has outlived him, especially in Tetouan, the inspiration behind much of his work.

"This exhibition is very important for highlighting Mariano Bertuchi as a figure who played a fundamental role in the development of the arts in Morocco," said Francisco Oda Ángel, director of the Cervantes Institute of Tetouan. "He was even the founder of the School of Fine Arts of Morocco,” the first of that kind in Africa.

Bertuchi is remembered as one of the artists whose work accurately showed Morocco, leaving behind paintings that eternalize a version of the country that can hardly be found today.