Son of an industrialist, Juan de Echevarría (Bilbao, 1875 – Madrid, 1931) undertook a cosmopolitan education in France, England, and Germany. In 1900 he took over the family business. However, following his mother’s death, he decided to dedicate himself exclusively to painting. In Bilbao he connected with the artists and intellectuals of the time: Miguel de Unamuno, Ricardo Gutiérrez Abascal, Adolfo Guiard, and Darío de Regoyos. In 1903 he continued his training in Paris. He attended gatherings at the Café Lapin Agile, frequented by Pablo Picasso, Edgar Degas, and Paul Gauguin. In 1911, thanks to the intervention of his friend Paco Durrio, he participated in the Salón d’Automne [Autumn Salon] in Paris and received compliments from Guillaume Apollinaire.

Upon his return to Spain, during the World War I, he painted the landscape of the Albaicín as well as gypsy compositions from a Primitivist perspective that resembled Gauguin’s. In Madrid he made portraits of several artists, particularly those associated with the Generation of 1898: Baroja, Azorín, Valle-Inclán and Unamuno. He produced numerous still lifes and landscapes in a style linked to Fauvist chromaticism. Stemming from Guiard’s influence, the aesthetic of early 20^th-century Basque regionalist painting also permeated his work.