Frederic Marès

FREDERIC MARÈS DEULOVOL (Portbou, Girona, 1893 - Barcelona, 1991).
"Shepherdess with sheep", c .1923.
Marble.
Measurements: 81 x 70 x 29 cm.
Missing the ear of a sheep.
Exhibitions: MEAM "Un segle de escultura catalana", 2013. Reproduced in the catalog, page 108. MEAM "Somnis i tentacions. La escultura catalana en temps del Modernisme", 2025. Reproduced in the catalog, p. 114.

Sculpture of notable interest within the production of Frederic Marès, in which academic rigor is combined with a delicate and narrative sensibility. The figure of the young shepherdess, represented standing and wrapped in a cloak that falls with sobriety, is accompanied by a large group of sheep treated with descriptive detail, creating a scene of a markedly poetic and evocative character. The marble is worked with precision and balance: the serenity of the face contrasts with the vivacity of the animal group surrounding the figure, generating a dialogue between stillness and movement. The artist demonstrates here his technical mastery, appreciable both in the organization of the relief and volumes and in the careful representation of textures and details. Dated around 1923, the piece is located in a stage in which Marès, fully formed, consolidates a personal language that harmonizes tradition, classicism and contemporary sensibility. The pastoral theme, linked to an idealized rural universe, connects with the symbolic and lyrical current inherited from late modernism, while anticipating the restrained elegance that would characterize much of his career.

Frederic Marès was trained at the School of Arts and Crafts in Barcelona, later completing his studies abroad. Shortly after completing his training, he joined the teaching staff of the school, a task he did not abandon until his retirement in 1964. The two main activities of Marès, sculptor and collector, frequently obscured his important teaching career, in which he came to share the direction of the Escuela Superior de Bellas Artes and the Escuela de Artes Aplicadas y Oficios Artísticos de Barcelona, and even to combine them, for a brief period of time, with the presidency of the Real Academia de Bellas Artes. Marès began working in the workshop of the modernist sculptor Eusebi Arnau, later becoming independent. He is currently represented in the museum that bears his name in Barcelona.