Maria Ariza
Period: Early Republic
1873 - 1959

Back Yard
Patio, 1931,
oil on canvas
16 3/4 x 20 1/4 inches

Maria Ariza y Delance was born in Havana in 1880. She completed her primary and secondary schooling at home under the guidance of her father, the architect Antonio Ariza y Pereira. In 1907 she departed for Europe in order to take painting lessons. She studied at the Julien Academy in Paris. For 18 years, she resided in Spain, France and Belgium, devoting herself to scholarship in the Fine Arts.


In 1917, 1918, 1919, 1921, 1927 and 1928 she participated in the collective exhibits of the Fine Arts Salon in Havana. In 1944 she exhibited her work at the first Juan Bautista Vermay Salon, and in 1949 her paintings were included in the exhibit La Mujer en la Plástica (Women in the Visual Arts) at the Lyceum, Havana. Her prizes include the Figure and Composition award of the National Academy of Arts and Letters of Havana, granted in 1919 for a piece titled Inútiles Consejos (Useless Advice) which she created in Madrid. In 1926, Maria Ariza joined the professoriate of the San Alejandro Academy of Arts, presenting courses in art history. In 1931 she also occupied a post as Administrator of the School under the directorship of master painter Armando Menocal.


Her artistic activity as a painter encompassed diverse themes, notably various landscapes of the Cuban countryside and a few nudes. With her piece Estudio (Study), Maria Ariza participated in the historic 1940 exhibition "Three Hundred Years of Art in Cuba". She died in Havana on the 7th of September, 1959.