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...

The reforms of Japan in the mid-19th century

From 1868 a series of reforms were carried out that gave Japon its modern physiognomy, disconcerting due to its contrasts and the juxtaposition between innovations and conservatism. Social and economic reforms The social reform was the one that conditioned all the others.Without altering the hierarchical order, their anachronistic appearances were destroyed to be subordinated to the needs of the State. The abolition of the feudal regime that characterized Japan made sharecroppers the owners of the lands they cultivated.The fiefdoms were transformed into administrative constituencies and, henceforth, the noble titles were purely honorary. The old "nobility" happened mostly to the service of the State, many of its samurais became an efficient source of government and administrative personnel. The peasantry did not suffer abrupt changes, since the rates and grievances that the old nobility demanded then passed to the State.Perhaps the most notable transform...

Frank norris Biography

Frank Norris (Chicago, 1870-San Francisco, 1902) American storyteller.With his contemporary Stephen Crana, he is considered the initiator of naturalism in American narrative literature.Of Anglo-Saxon descent, Frank Norris was the son of a wealthy jewelry wholesaler.Since childhood, his mother had inspired him with enthusiasm for Walter Scott, Charles Dickens, and R.L.Stevenson, and this admiration was decisive in his career. Frank Norris In San Francisco, where the family had moved when he was fifteen, and later in Paris, he studied painting.In the French capital he attended the Artistic Institute of Paris, at the time of Émile Zola and Guy de Maupassant, whose work he did not know.Frank Norris immersed himself in the studies of Jean Froissart, the Chanson de Roland and the Middle Ages.His medievalism assumed literary form, when he was nineteen, in Yvernelle , a chivalric romance in verse. Returned to America, he spent four years as a rich and neglectful young man, although...

Agustin Duran Biography

Agustín Durán (Madrid, 1793-1862) Spanish writer.He is considered one of the introducers of romanticism in Spain and one of the initiators of the historical criticism of literature.He is the author of Discourse on the influence that modern criticism has had on the decline of the ancient Spanish theater (1828), of Trovas in ancient Castilian parla (1829), of studies about Lope de Vega and Tirso de Molina and legends. Agustín Durán He studied at the seminary in Vergara and then at the Faculty of Law of the University of Seville.He practiced law in Valladolid and later professed public education, where he would achieve a prominent position.On the death of Fernando VII, he received several offers, but he preferred to sacrifice his future career, which would have been facilitated by his social position, to philological studies.He became director of the National Library, a position in which he was able to dedicate himself to his activity as bibliographer and researcher and text ed...

X-ray history

The X-rays were discovered in 1895 and from there they became a very revolutionary application in many branches of science, from astronomy to radiographs that we have not done so many times.the 120th anniversary of the X-rays knowing his inventor and the research that led him to such an important scientific advance. Article index Who invented the X-rays? The inventor or, rather, the person who discovered the X-rays was Wilhelm Conrad Rontgen , a German physicist who was focused on the field of electromagnetics Nothing else to present his discovery, Rontgen's theory received great attention from critics and public, and was translated into French, English or Russian. Although it is not a name as well known today as that of others you celebrate writers, the name of Wilhelm Conrad Rontgen is written in gold letters in the medical field, where he has had and has and numerous applications.The importance of his discovery was such in his day that he was the first Nobel Prize ...

Alberto Ullastres Calvo Biography

Alberto Ullastres Calvo (Madrid, 1914-2001) Spanish politician, economist and lawyer.Minister of Economy (1957-1965) and Spanish ambassador to the EEC (1965-1976), Ullastres began his training with law studies at the Complutense University of Madrid, simultaneously with those of a business professor, specialized in Economics.During his university stage he actively worked as a director of the National Action Youth. Alberto Ullastres During the years of the Civil War he was complement lieutenant of the Arma de Ingenieros, on the national side, on the fronts of Asturias, Aragón, Levante and in the 83 Division of the Galician Army Corps, achieving the Campaign Medal, Red Cross of Military Merit, Warrior Cross, Medal of the Siege of Oviedo, and citations in the order of the day during the Battle of Nules. After the Civil War, Ullastres received his doctorate in Law and was a member of the Institute of Economics of the Higher Council for Scientific Research ( CSIC).As a collaborator...

Isaac II Angelo Biography

Isaac II Angelo (Isaac II Angelo or the Angel;?, 1155-Constantinople, 1204).Emperor of Byzantium (1185-1195 and 1203-1204).He was the first representative of the Angel dynasty.During his years of reign he overcame the many complications that arose, but despite his ability as a ruler, at his death, the Empire was more weakened, mainly due to the problems in the Balkans. Son From Andronicus the Angel, he occupied the throne of Byzantium on September 12, 1185, after a revolution dethroned Alexius I Komnenos, the last of the Komnenos emperors.It was the harshness of the rule of Alexios and the fear of the Normans, who had recently conquered Thessalonica, the causes that elevated the Angels to the imperial throne. Isaac II Angelo and his son Alexius IV The same year as Isaac's coronation, his leader, Alexius Dranas, defeated Norman William II and he put to flight the Norman army that was heading towards Constantinople.After expelling the Normans in the Balkans, an insurrection ...

Hachiko's story: biography, legend and curiosities

Can a dog become an essential character for the story? You will verify that if with the History of Hachiko: biography, legend and curiosities of this historical can. Index of the article Biography of Hachiko Hachiko is an icon in Japan, a sign of love and the loyalty that an animal can give us to human beings.Books have been written about him and he has starred in very blockbuster movies, but do you know the real story of Hachiko ? We tell you his biography and also the legend that is around him.If for you this character is not yet well known, we advise you to have a package of handkerchiefs at hand, because you can escape the occasional tear with his beautiful legend and when You know the noble heart of this Japanese dog. Hachiko was born on a farm in Akita Prefecture, in Odate, in Japan.According to the data, a university professor named Hidesaburo Ueno had just lost his dog, and the family decided to adopt a new animal.The dog arrived in a box to the shibuya station and,...

Francesco Accursio Biography

Francesco Accursio (Francisco or Francesco d'Accorso or Accursio; Bagnolo, c. 1185-Florence ?, c. 1263) Jurisconsult Italian.Glosser and renovator of Roman law, he is especially remembered as the author of the Great Gloss . Francesco Accursio Francisco Accursio was the greatest jurist of the Bolognese school, a glorious expression of Italian civilization in the Middle Ages who, worthily linked to the Roman legal tradition, not only carried out a passionate work of investigation and reconstruction, but also gave rise to that right Common that was the Roman law of the Middle Ages, from which the pandectists of the 19th century later descended to found the modern science of law.The researchers of this school were called "Glosadores", from "gloss", literal rectification of an interpretive nature and often also commentary on controversial passages, through a comparative study of them or also through an original reconstruction. Of peasant origin (the sur...

Gregorio luperón Biography

Gregorio Luperón (Puerto Plata, 1839-1897) Dominican patriot, hero of the Restoration War and main leader of the Liberals during the Second Republic. Gregorio Luperón Having achieved the independence of Haiti in 1844, the First Dominican Republic (1844-1861) had to suffer both the repeated attacks of the Haitians, that they threatened the national sovereignty, such as the dictatorial ways of the presidents who alternated in power during those years: Pedro Santana and Buenaventura Báez.At the end of his last term (1858-1861), Pedro Santana decided to annex the country to Spain; His idea was to put an end to the permanent threat from Haiti, but also to perpetuate himself in power, since he accepted in exchange the position of captain general of the new Spanish province of Santo Domingo. The Baecistas continued to govern for three more years without their leader, whom they deposed to prevent the blue party from displacing them from power through a revolution.This took place in 18...