Skip to main content

Josep de Togores Biography

Josep de Togores

(Josep de Togores i Llach; Cerdanyola, 1893-Barcelona, ​​1970) Spanish painter.After a first realistic stage, with a predominance of the nude, he drifted towards a style with a religious theme.He also worked on mural painting and book illustration.

Born into a wealthy family and with intellectual and artistic concerns, he soon revealed a great sensitivity for drawing.At thirteen years of age, he became deaf due to meningitis.In those years he was a drawing student of Joan Llaverias, who advised the father to let his son's artistic potential develop to the maximum.In 1906, father and son traveled to Paris and then to Belgium in the hope of curing the boy's deafness.

A year later, stimulated by the impression made on him by the Monet painting he saw at the International Exhibition in Barcelona, ​​Josep de Togores began to paint his first oil paintings.After a period of apprenticeship with Félix Mestres in Barcelona, ​​he painted some worthy paintings, the best known of which is El loco de Cerdanyola (1909), shown in the Parés room in Barcelona before it was awarded at the Universal Exhibition in Brussels (Belgium) and acquired by the Belgian Government.

Portrait of Madame Claire (1922), by Josep de Togores

With this work he opened what has been considered his impressionist stage.In 1911 he won a third medal at the Barcelona Fine Arts Exhibition.Two years later, encouraged by his family, he went to Madrid for a few months to immerse himself in the painting of the Prado Museum, and that same year he returned to Paris with a grant from the Barcelona City Council.In the French capital he discovered painters who were to be decisive in the directions of aesthetic taste, mainly Cézanne and Matisse, from whom he drew fundamental lessons of classicism.With the outbreak of the First World War (1914-1918), Togores decided to leave Paris and return to Barcelona.

It was then when, in contact with some representatives of the Catalan pictorial Noucentisme (Sunyer, Nogués, Casanovas or JM Junoy) and with the lesson learned in France, he began to abandon the impressionist procedures to pay more attention to the line, volume and materiality of objects.Once the drama of the death of his mother (1915) and the bankruptcy of the family fortune had been overcome, the art of Josep de Togores began to give its best.

In 1919 he settled again in the city of the Seine, this time for eleven years.There he frequented Picasso, Gris, Utrillo, Modigliani and other artists, although he remained in a precarious situation until he got a contract with the gallery owner Kahnweiler, thanks to which he exhibited successfully in various European capitals.In the catalog of his first solo exhibition (1922), Max Jacob spoke of "cubistic vigor", "linear composition", "constructive analyst", etc., characteristics that related his art to the new German objectivity and to the current Italian valori plastici .

Sleeping children (1927), by Josep de Togores

Some excellent paintings from the 1920s are the portrait by Aleix de Togores , Two nudes and Bathers , as well as numerous exceptionally crafted female nudes, in whose formal sense classical Picassian academicism is mixed and the close carnal vitality of the best Sunyer.In 1926 he held a triumphant exhibition in Barcelona, ​​but the city's official museums still considered his art too scandalous.Between 1928 and 1930 his work changed: bodies were derealized and transformed into almost abstract figures, which gradually drifted towards a kind of anthropomorphic calligraphy close to the aesthetics of French automatic surrealism.

After a few years of practicing this type of surrealism, quite strange in Spain, Togores returned to classicism and a conventional figuration, a bit standardized, but almost always of excellent technical invoice.In his last creative stage, he became interested in religious themes, encouraged by his activities as a restorer of ancient altarpieces.His graphic work destined for bibliophile editions is also of great interest.Since the mid-1940s he presented his works at the Sala Parés and also in galleries and museums in Madrid.It is represented, among others, in the Reina Sofía National Art Center Museum (Madrid) and in the National Art Museum of Catalonia (Barcelona).

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Hernando Tellez Biography

Hernando Téllez (Santafé de Bogotá, 1908-1966) Colombian writer and journalist.From a very young age, he showed his journalistic skills, as a contributor to the magazine Universidad directed by Germán Arciniegas, and as an assistant to Enrique Santos in El Tiempo . He was also deputy director of El Liberal and director of the magazine Semana .During the period between 1943 and 1944 he served as Colombian consul in Marseille and senator of the Republic, but he stood out above all for being one of the most complete writers of his time (he was a translator, commentator, short story writer, essayist and literary critic ). In his extensive essay work he dealt with issues of literature, society, politics and everyday life.Téllez was a poet of the essay, as well as profound; He was a great craftsman of the language, a teacher in a sober and effective handling of the language.He was a sensitive observer of daily life, an acute critic of the social and political life of the country...

James A. Mirrlees Biography

James A.Mirrlees (Minnigaff, 1936) British economist.He studied at Douglas Ewart High School and Newton Stewart and entered the University of Edinburgh in 1954 to study mathematics, from which he graduated in 1957.From Scotland he left for England after his admission to Trinity College from the University of Cambridge.In this institution he continued his mathematical training, but during his stay in Cambridge there was an approach to economics that led him to do a doctorate in this discipline and which ended in 1963. When Mirrlees finished his studies in Cambridge, began collaborating with Kaldor as a research assistant on issues related to economic growth.From that position he went to the Center for International Studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology between 1962 and 1963, at which time he was linked to development studies in India.Upon his return to the UK, he obtained a position as Professor of Economics at the University of Cambridge. He held the position unti...

Jean-Baptiste-Joseph Fourier Biography

Jean-Baptiste-Joseph Fourier (Auxerre, France, 1768-Paris, 1830) French engineer and mathematician.He was the son of a tailor, and was educated by the Benedictines.Positions in the Army Scientific Corps were reserved for families of recognized status, so he accepted a military professorship in mathematics. Joseph Fourier During the French Revolution he had a prominent role in his own district, and was rewarded with a candidacy for a chair at the École Polytechnique.Fourier accompanied Napoleon on his eastern expedition of 1798, and was appointed governor of Lower Egypt.Isolated from France by the British fleet, it organized the workshops that the French army had to count on for its ammunition supplies.He also contributed numerous writings on mathematics to the Egyptian Institute that Napoleon founded in Cairo. After the British victories and the capitulation of the French under General Menou in 1801, Joseph Fourier returned to France, where he was appointed prefect of the depa...

Jorge Dezcallar Biography

Jorge Dezcallar (Palma de Mallorca, 1945) Spanish lawyer and diplomat.Jorge Dezcallar Mazarredo was born on November 3, 1945 in Palma de Mallorca, the oldest of four siblings.After completing his first studies at the College of the Franciscan Fathers in the Mallorcan capital, he studied law at the Complutense University of Madrid, the city to which his father, a colonel of the Marine Corps, had been assigned. After graduating as a lawyer he decided to undertake diplomatic studies.In the family there was already a history of people linked to diplomacy, which undoubtedly sowed Dezcallar's concern to develop his professional work in the foreign service. Jorge Dezcallar His entry into the Ministry of Foreign Affairs took place by opposition in August 1971.Between 1972 and 1974 he was stationed in Poland, and from September 1974 to April 1978 he remained at the Consulate General of Spain in New York, where he held various positions.In April 1978, he moved to the Uruguayan embas...

Social classes in the Roman Empire: Patricios, Noble Commoners and Gentlemen Commoners

The Roman Empire has been one of the most powerful, extensive and important in the history of Humanity.Many peoples fell under the yoke of Rome, and today you can still admire the architectural remains of a civilization that reached a splendor almost absolute.However, in the Roman Empire there were great differences between the different strata that made up the society.Although from the oldest civilizations there were already different orders or "classes", today we focus on the different social classes in the Roman Empire: Patricios, Noble Commoners and Gentlemen Plebeians . Social classes in the Roman Empire The Roman civilization is one of the most complex societies of universal history.Given its long duration (since 8th century BC until the 5th century AD ) historians have divided the History of Rome into different historical periods: Monarchy, Republic of Empire .Today I propose you to enter the most splendid years of the Roman Empire ( sI and II BC .), ...

Andres Torrejon Biography

Andrés Torrejón (Móstoles, 1736- id. , 1812) Spanish administrator.In 1808 he was one of the two mayors of Móstoles (the other was Simón Hernández) when the May 2 uprising occurred.At the request of the prosecutor of the War Council, Juan Pérez Villamil, both mayors published a statement calling on the people to rise up in arms against the French.

Agnes De Mille Biography

Agnes De Mille (New York, 1909- id , 1993) American dancer and choreographer.Niece of C.B.De Mille has collaborated on musical comedies and has moved away from classical ballet in favor of a more popular style ( Rodeo , 1942; A rose for Emily , 1971).She has worked as a consultant in musical comedies and has dedicated herself to recovering the American folk tradition.

Adam schaff Biography

Adam Schaff (Lemberg, 1913) Polish philosopher.Professor in Warsaw (1948-1970) and Vienna (since 1970) and member of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party (1959-1968), he is the author of works on the theory of knowledge ( The concept and the word , 1946; The problems of the Marxist theory of truth , 1951; Language and knowledge , 1963), on social sciences ( Marxism and the individual , 1965; Alienation as a social phenomenon , 1977) and on politics ( Communism at the crossroads , 1982; Where does the road lead? , 1985).In 1997 his work News of a man with problems was published in Spanish.

Ian Richard Kyle Paisley Biography

Ian Richard Kyle Paisley (Belfast, 1926) Ulster ecclesiastic and politician.Founder of the Free Presbyterian Church of Northern Ireland (1951), he opposed the rapprochement between Protestantism and the Vatican and was against the civil rights movement.Leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, he rallied Protestant extremists around him in his campaigns against the Catholics of Ulster.Member of the Assembly of Northern Ireland (1973-1974) and of the British Parliament since 1970.Founder of the paramilitary group Ulster Defense Association (1981), between 1990 and 1994 he boycotted the peace talks on several occasions with the British government.In 1999 he was elected MEP.

Jose Maria Liceaga Biography

José María Liceaga (Guanajuato, c .1780-?, 1818) Mexican patriot.During the struggle for independence he took part in the attack on Valladolid (1811).He collaborated with Mina in the dissolution of the Congress of Chilpancingo.