Mariano Barbasan y Lagueruela was born at Zaragoza (Saragossa), Spain, in 1864. At the young age of sixteen he went to Valencia and studied at the Academy of Art, together with Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida and Salvator Abril y Blasco. In 1890 the City of Saragossa awarded Barbasan a scholarship for a sojourn in Rome in honor of his painting "Josef Interprets the Dreams of the Baker and the Butler". In the following he lived in Anticoli Corrado north of Rome until 1922. Barbasan's paintings first and foremost comprise street-, market- and procession scenes characterized by a meticulous Naturalism. These both atmospheric and lively works were quite popular with many Grand-Tour travelers from America and Northern Europe. Barbasan's paintings were shown at all important international exhibitions in London, Berlin, Munich, Viennaand Madrid during the artist's lifetime.