An easel painter of landscapes and figures, muralist, sculptor and teacher, Xavier Gonzalez was born in Almeria, Spain and was active in Provincetown, Massachusetts from 1947. He also lived in Argentina and Mexico, where he was planning on becoming a mining engineer, but in 1925, he immigrated to the United States, and in 1931, he became a U.S. citizen.

He studied at the Art Institute of Chicago from 1921 to 1923 and with his uncle, Jose Arpa. He also studied at the San Carlos Academy in Mexico City, and in Paris and in the Far East. He was a teacher at Tulane University, Brooklyn Museum, Sul Ross State Teachers College, Case Western Reserve University and in New Orleans at Newcomb Memorial School of Art. There he often worked with...