Josep Llimona

JOSEP LLIMONA BRUGUERA (Barcelona, 1864 - 1934).
"Modèstia", 1891.
Polychrome stucco.
Signed.
Stamped Esteva & Cia, Barcelona.
Work cataloged in "Una passejada per l'obra de Josep Llimona, 150 anys", MEAM, 2015, p. 104.
Measurements: 42 x 34 x 15 cm.

The sculpture "Modèstia" evidences the most personal characteristics of Josep Llimona: the naturalistic idealism, the inclination towards the kind side of reality and, above all, a great delicacy and beauty in his female figures, always slender and innocent, wrapped by a veil of mystery.
Josep Limona is remembered as the most important Catalan sculptor of modernism. Trained at the Llotja School in Barcelona, he obtained the pension to go to Rome in 1880. During his stay in Italy he was influenced by Florentine Renaissance sculpture. With the works he sent from there he obtained prizes (gold medal at the Universal Exhibition of Barcelona in 1888), as well as a great reputation. With his brother Joan he founded the Círculo Artístico de Sant Lluc, a Catalan artistic association of religious character (the two brothers were deep believers). Towards the middle of the 90's his style already drifts towards full modernism. He received the prize of honor at the International Exhibition of Fine Arts held in 1907 in Barcelona. From 1900 he focused on his famous female nudes, and in 1914 he created, in collaboration with Gaudí, his impressive "Resurrected Christ". His artistic genius also manifested itself in large public monuments such as the equestrian statue of St. Jordi in Montjuic Park in Barcelona, as well as in works of funerary imagery, such as the pantheons he created for several cemeteries. In addition to exhibiting in Barcelona and other Catalan cities, he exhibited his work in Madrid, Brussels, Paris, Buenos Aires and Rosario (Argentina). He was president of the Board of Museums of Barcelona between 1918 and 1924, and again from 1931 until his death in 1934. Throughout his life he received numerous decorations, including those awarded by the governments of France and Italy. He also received the Gold Medal of the City of Barcelona in 1932, in recognition of his extraordinary work in the development of museum activity. Llimona's work is preserved in the Monastery of Montserrat, the National Art Museum of Catalonia and the Reina Sofia Museum, among others.