Josep Cusachs

JOSEP CUSACHS (Montpellier, France, 1851 - Barcelona, 1908).
"Study for a Battle Scene. Paris, ca.1900.
Watercolour on paper.
Signed and located in the lower right corner.
Size: 11 x 20 cm; 36 x 45.5 cm (frame).
In the heat of the battle, the rearing horses stand out in this composition by Cusachs, a sketch or preparatory study in which, with his characteristic swift and resolute stroke, he superimposes wounded bodies on the ground with energetic equine foreshortenings and galloping soldiers.
José Cusachs was accidentally born in France, as his parents were travelling there, but his art and his life were always linked to two places: Barcelona and Mataró. In 1865, after passing a competitive examination, he entered the Artillery Academy for a military career. However, in 1882, after a brilliant career that led him to become a captain in the army for war merits, he asked for retirement to devote himself to painting. Trained in Barcelona under the guidance of Simón Gómez, he completed his artistic studies with a stay in Paris at the studio of Édouard Détaille, one of the greatest experts in military themes, a genre that Cusachs favoured. Among military themes, this artist was particularly fond of cavalry, due to his passion for horses. In 1880 he settled in Barcelona and began an extensive production of military studies, which were reproduced in F. Barado's work entitled "La vida militar en España" ("Military Life in Spain"). Previously, before leaving the army, he had worked as a caricaturist and chronicler of a Spain immersed in a maelstrom of political events, in which he was immersed due to his military status. During these years he made his work known through solo exhibitions, such as those he held regularly from 1884 onwards at the Sala Parés in Barcelona, which were always a great success with both sales and critics. By 1890 he was already a regular exhibitor at the gallery, where he showed new works every week. The bond between Cusachs and the Sala Parés was so deep, in fact, that after the painter's death the gallery fell into a period of absolute decadence. Cusachs also took part in official competitions; in 1887 he obtained notable recognition at the National Exhibition of Fine Arts in Madrid with three paintings, one of which was acquired by the regent Maria Cristina ("En el campo de maniobras" ("On the Manoeuvre Field"). In 1891 he took part in the Berlin Exhibition and won the Gold Medal for his work "Division Manoeuvres". The bulk of his work is in the Museo de Arte Moderno in Madrid and the Museo Nacional de Arte de Cataluña, as well as other centres such as the Museo de Montserrat, the Museo Nacional de Historia, the Capitanía General de Valencia, the Jefatura de Artillería in Valladolid, the Galería de Capitanes Ilustres in Barcelona City Hall and important private collections, such as the Santiago Gramunt collection.