Skip to main content

Josep Llimona Biography

Josep Llimona

(Barcelona, ​​1864-id., 1934) Spanish sculptor.He frequented the workshop of Frederic Trías and completed his studies at the Escuela de la Llotja.In 1880 he went to Rome on a scholarship from the Barcelona City Council.With the works he carried out in Rome, among others a sketch for the equestrian statue of Ramón Berenguer el Grande, he has already achieved awards and a great reputation.Since his return to Barcelona, ​​the orders and the realizations were constant.After a period dominated by religious themes ( First Communion , 1897), he turned to the female nude, a field in which some of his masterpieces are inscribed ( Desconsolation , Youth ).In other works, such as The Forger , the tenderness of the nudes gives way to a contained aggressiveness.He is also owed, among many other creations, the monument to Dr.Robert and the Risen Christ of Montserrat.

Josep Llimona

Hermano del painter Joan Llimona, also his sons María and Rafael would be artists, dedicated respectively to sculpture and painting.Josep Llimona began his training in Federico Trías's workshop and at the age of fourteen he entered the School of Fine Arts of La Llotja in Barcelona, ​​where he studied painting with Martí Alsina and sculpture with the Valimitjana brothers and Nobas.The Barcelona City Council granted him the Fortuny pension in 1880 to further his training in Rome, a city where he frequented Enric Serra's workshop, attended the Gigi Academy and received the influence of the four-century sculpture (especially by Donatello) more than properly that of the classical one, along with certain medieval echoes.

During his first Roman year he made the sketches for the equestrian sculpture of Ramón Berenguer III el Grande, which earned him the extension of the scholarship for one more year.He then modeled the work and presented it at the Universal Exhibition of Barcelona in 1888.The reliefs that he sculpted for the monument to Christopher Columbus in the port of Barcelona (1886) also correspond to the stage immediately after his stay in Rome.commission of the Universal Exhibition, a statue of Ramón Berenguer el Viejo and the frieze of the Arc de Triomphe.

Shortly after, in 1892, Josep Llimona founded with his brother Joan the Artistic Circle of Sant Lluc, of which he was president from 1898 to 1902.To the Catholic and moralistic ideology of the Circle correspond works of religious themes such as the Virgen del Rosario (1892), Consumatum est (1896, Montserrat) and The First Communion (1897, Barcelona, ​​Museum of Modern Art ).

The First Communion (1897)

Despite its narrative nature and still being in the line of Eighteenth-century sculpture, these works correspond to a stage in which Llimona felt an increasing attraction to the so-called "modernity".Indeed, since 1891, with his female head titled Modestia , Llimona's interest in modernist aesthetics was revealed, perhaps due to the influence of the sculptor Miguel Blay Fábregas, but surely also as a result of the trips made to Paris and throughout Europe since that year.Such trips led him to get in touch, in the early years of the 20th century, with artists who represented the overcoming of detail and the eight-century mannerism, such as Auguste Rodin, Constantin Meunier or Paul Albert Bartholomé; Likewise, they led him to learn about and follow a line of search in classical Greek sculpture of forms, volumes and an aura of serenity that allowed him to connect with the artistic ideas of Aristide Maillol and Manolo Hugué.

Modesty (1891)

In 1901, following the death of his wife, the introvert character that had always characterized him seemed to intensify; Along with that introversion then increased, his Catholicism accentuated the concern to reflect physical and moral pain, which he dealt with in a series of female figures, many of them naked, which became a frequent theme of his sculptural production.In this conjunction of the preoccupation with the volumetric modeling of the bodies, the personal crisis and the interest in the treatment of the female body, his work Desconsolation (1903) originates, preserved in later replicas, from 1907, in the museum of Modern Art in Barcelona and in the Casón del Buen Retiro in Madrid.Influenced by Rodin's Danaide , this sculpture must already be described as fully modernist and reaches the highest quality within the aforementioned female nudes in which pain is reflected, intensely but serenely.The sensuality and refinement in the representation of the female body demonstrate an unusual virtuosity in marble work and an impressive ability to convey the state of mind in a contained way.

Desconsolation (1903), by Josep Llimona

Responding to an eclectic modernism and as a result of inspiration from Rodin's epic sentiment and from the realism of Meunier's figures, Llimona made a monument in honor of Dr.Robert (1903-1910), a work on a social theme, realistic and at the same time fully idealistic in its allegorical exaltation of the work, arts and letters of the Catalan people.

In the decade of the ten and the twenties, Llimona continued with his series of female nudes, characterized by their soft and delicate invoice, with an approach to the figure similar to that of his productions of the previous decade , despite which, with his attitude of restraint and serenity, he managed to connect with the movement that prevailed at that time, the Noucentisme.Examples of this are sculptures such as Youth (1913, Museum of Modern Art of Barcelona), Meditation (1917), Beauty (1924) and Cordelia (1930).

Another of the frequent themes in Llimona's work, and in the same field of body modeling, is that of male figures.In them an omnipresent serenity seemed to guide the sculptor in order to calm the possible aggressiveness that reigned in the muscular male bodies; This is how it is seen in El forjador (1914), the equestrian Sant Jordi of the Montjuïc Park (1924) or the monument to the Martyrs of Independence (1925).

Funerary statues of Josep Llimona in Comillas and Cadaqués cemeteries

He did not stop cultivating throughout his life the sculpture of religious themes, as shown by the numerous funerary monuments that he made for aristocratic or upper bourgeois families: the Maristany, counts of Lavern, in El Masnou (Barcelona), the Mundet de Arenys de Mar (Barcelona), the Rialp from Barcelona, ​​Robert from Sitges (Barcelona), Satrústegui from San Sebastián (Guipúzcoa), Santiago López de Comillas (Santander) and Berjano from Cáceres.Other notable religious works are the Burial of Christ made for the parish of Vilafranca del Penedès (Barcelona), the Risen Christ (1914, basilica of Montserrat), commissioned by the Bishop of Vic, Josep Torras i Bages, or the Calvario for the cemetery of Portugalete (Vizcaya), commissioned by the Marquis of Comillas.Included in the works on pious themes are also some of his allegorical sculptural groups such as Amor a la infantil (Escuela del Bosque, Barcelona).

In 1931, Josep Llimona was appointed president of the Barcelona Museum Board, a position from which he sought to encourage the renewal of Barcelona's artistic and cultural life, having already become one of the modernist sculptors himself most prominent and influential in Catalan artistic life in the first third of the 20th century.His career included innumerable exhibitions in Spain and Europe and had been recognized with international awards; For his equestrian statue of Ramón Berenguer el Grande, he received the gold medal of the Universal Exhibition of Barcelona in 1888, and Disconsolation deserved the honor prize of the International Exhibition of Fine Arts (1907).

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Hans tausen Biography

Hans Tausen (Birkende, 1494-Ribe, 1561) Danish reformer.He was a student of Luther at Wittenberg.In 1530 he contributed to the writing of the Confessio Hafniensis (forty-three articles of the Danish Reformation) and was Bishop of Ribe (1542).He is the author of numerous writings on theological themes.
Post a Comment
Read more

Hevelius [Johannes Havelke] Biography

Hevelius [Johannes Havelke] (Danzig, 1611- id. , 1687) German astronomer.He drew up a first lunar map, published under the name Selenography (1647), in which he assigned names to the various features of the lunar surface and called the dark areas the sea.He determined the period of rotation of the Sun, observed its spots and discovered the faculae.In 1657 he began a catalog in which he determined the positions of 1,500 stars and that he could not finish because of a fire that destroyed his observatory (1679).
Post a Comment
Read more

Jose Pascual Vila Biography

José Pascual Vila (Mataró, 1895-Barcelona, ​​1979) Spanish chemist.He received a doctorate in Science and Pharmacy from the University of Barcelona, ​​and later completed his training in Germany and Austria.In 1922 he held the Chair of Organic Chemistry at the University of Salamanca, and shortly after at the University of Seville, between 1925 and 1934.On this date he moved to the University of Barcelona, ​​where from the same chair he taught the same subject (until 1965 ).At the latter University, he was also Vice Chancellor. Director of the Institute of Chemistry of the Center for Research and Development of the CSIC, focused his research on structural and stereochemical issues, about homoserine, cyclamic hydroxy acids, orthoesters and other topics related to Organic Chemistry, which had much repercussion in the world of Chemistry and they were the foundation of the Barcelona School. He was a member of the Royal Academy of Exact, Physical and Natural Sciences and of the Royal...
Post a Comment
Read more

Georgi Plekhanov Biography

Georgi Plejanov (Georgi or Gueorgui Valentinovich Plejanov; Gudalovka, central Russia, 1857-Terijoki, Finland, 1918) Thinker and activist of Russian socialism.He is considered the introducer in Russia of the thought of Marx and Engels.Born into a family of the gentry, he joined the revolutionary circles that fought against Tsarism since his student days. Georgi Plejanov Exiled in Switzerland since 1880, there he met Lenin and converted him to Marxist ideas; There he also founded, in 1883, the Emancipation of Labor group, the embryo of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (which he would contribute to found in 1894).At the same time, he developed a whole theoretical work following the ideas of the social democracy of central and western Europe (his Essay on the monist conception of history, of 1895 stands out). When in 1903 the party split between Lenin's Bolsheviks (in favor of turning the party into the vanguard of an immediate revolution, supported by the peasan...
Post a Comment
Read more

Josep Cumellas i Ribó Biography

Josep Cumellas i Ribó (Barcelona, ​​1875-1940) Spanish composer, organist and conductor.He studied music with Antonio Nicolau, Enrique Granados, Eusebi Daniel and Vicenç Costa i Nogueras at the Liceo Conservatory.In his hometown he held the position of musical director of several churches such as San Felipe Neri and Nuestra Señora de Pompeya.He developed his pedagogical career at various institutions such as the Academia Granados, the Vidiella School and the Conservatory of Terrassa, of which he was also deputy director between 1925 and 1936.He directed the Gracienc and Montserrat choirs in Barcelona, ​​for which he composed choral works of a nationalist nature.Among its more than 400 works there are samples of almost all musical genres, although stage, choral and organ music predominates.In the field of sacred music, his Salve Regina and his two Passions are notable.Cumellas harmonized numerous popular Catalan and Balearic songs that were published in various European countries.
Post a Comment
Read more

Isidore Philipp Biography

Isidore Philipp (Budapest, 1863-Paris, 1958) French pianist and composer of Hungarian origin.Installed in France from a young age, in 1890 he founded, with Berthelier and Loeb, a chamber music association.He was a remarkable pianist and an esteemed teacher.He lived in the US since 1941.He wrote educational works for his instrument.
Post a Comment
Read more

Joseph H. Maclagan Wedderburn Biography

Joseph H.Maclagan Wedderburn (Forfar, 1882-Princeton, 1948) British mathematician.Professor at Princeton University, he was editor of the Proceedings of the Edinburgh mathematical society (1905-1909) and the Annals of mathematics (1912-1928).He stated a theorem ( Wedderburn's theorem ) according to which every finite field is commutative.
Post a Comment
Read more

Isaac Jesus Barrera Quiroz Biography

Isaac Jesús Barrera Quiroz (Otavalo, 1884-Quito, 1970) Ecuadorian writer.He stood out for the publication of different biographies focused on characters from the colonial era such as the Ecuadorian writer, politician and diplomat Vicente Rocafuerte (1783-1847) and the liberator Simón Bolívar (1783-1830).He also stood out for his studies in the history of literature: Studies of Castilian Literature and History of Ecuadorian Literature .He directed the Ecuadorian Academy of History and was a corresponding member of the Academy of Language.
Post a Comment
Read more

Carolingian dynasty Biography

Carolingian Dynasty Family reigning between the middle of the 8th century and the beginning of the 10th century in practically all of Western Europe (except for the Iberian Peninsula, southern Italy and the British Isles).It gets its name from the two most prominent figures of the dynasty, Carlos Martel and Charlemagne.It was originally a Germanic noble family settled in Austrasia, in the area between the Meuse and the Rhine rivers; a first attempt to seize the Throne from the Merovingians in the mid-seventh century ended in failure, without the reprisals affecting the family patrimony.From now on, the family preferred to grow up under the Merovingian monarchy, whose decomposition left effective power in the hands of the mayordomos of the palaces of the different territories. Pepin II of Herstal (679-714) , steward of Austrasia, managed to seize the rule of the Frankish kingdom by defeating the steward of Neustria and Burgundy.His bastard son Carlos Martel (714-41) re-establis...
Post a Comment
Read more

Jean Charles Peltier Biography

Jean Charles Peltier (Ham, France, 1785-Paris, 1845) French physicist.Watchmaker by profession, Jean Peltier left his trade when he was thirty years old, to dedicate himself fully to scientific research in the field of electricity. Jean Peltier In 1834 he discovered that when an electric current circulates through a conductor made up of two different metals, joined by a weld, the latter heats up or cools down according to the direction of the current (Peltier effect).This effect, which would be confirmed by the famous Russian physicist Heinrich Lenz, led to research by James Prescott Joule and William Thomson on analogous thermoelectric phenomena and has been of great importance in the recent development of non-polluting cooling mechanisms. Peltier is also owed the introduction of the concept of electrostatic induction (1840), referred to the modification of the distribution of electric charge in a material, under the influence of a second object close to it and that has an el...
Post a Comment
Read more