María Ariza Delance

María Ariza y Delance (1873 – September 7, 1959) was a Cuban landscape painter. She was a professor at the Academia Nacional de Bellas Artes San Alejandro from 1926 to 1959. Ariza became a student at the Academy of San Alejandro, where she studied under Valentín Sanz Carta and Leopoldo Romañach Guillén. Sanz Carta was a particular influence, with his practice of having students paint en plein air and taking them on field trips to do so. Ariza travelled to Europe in 1907 to further her studies. She entered the Académie Julian in Paris and studied under Marcel Baschet , William Laparra, and Jean-Paul Laurens, and later studied under Cecilio Pla Gallardo in Madrid. In 1916, her painting Consejos Inútiles won a contest sponsored by La Academia Nacional de Artes y Letras de Cuba, providing her with financial support that allowed her to remain in Europe longer. Sometime in the 1920s, she returned to Cuba, where she spent the rest of her life teaching at the Academia San Alejandro.