Academy

School of Drawing and Painting

Barcelona, 1927 – 1984

In 1927 he opened his prestigious school of painting in Portal del Ángel street (called "academy" or "school" indistinctly by its students), that would accompany him all his life. In 1947 it moved to Paseo de Gracia, to the very same location where Santiago Rusiñol had had his studio before, and in the last years it was at Muntaner street, disappearing at the same time as its founder and only lecturer.

Throughout more than 50 years, future artists and architects attended his lessons. Some became as renowned as Xavier Blanch, Freixas Cortés, Francesc Todó, Carlos Ballesteros, Manuel Solà Morales, Federico Correa or the Milà brothers.

"I am from the Sainz de la Maza school". This sentence, pronounced by a painter, is easy to hear in Barcelona today. When visiting museums and art galleries one might think that "painting schools" ended with the Renaissance, but that is not true. Big artists still combine their creative activity with education.

"Francisco Sainz de la Maza, brother of the famous guitarist Regino Sainz de la Maza, is one of the modern painters with 'school': a plethora of aspiring artists attend his courses every year."