Jaume Mercadé

JAUME MERCADÉ QUERALT (Valls, Tarragona, 1887/89 - Barcelona, 1967).
"Cloister", 1933.
Oil on canvas.
Signed and dated in the lower left corner.
Measurements: 42 x 66 cm.

Painter, goldsmith and jeweler, Jaume Mercadé was formed in the School of Francesc Galí. He settled definitively in Barcelona in 1916, and that same year he held his first individual exhibition in the Layetanas Galleries. During the following two years he undertook a trip that took him to Paris and various German cities. On his return, in 1919, he was appointed professor of jewelry and goldsmithing at the School of Arts and Crafts in Barcelona. A tireless worker, he participated in numerous competitions and was awarded on multiple occasions, being also awarded as a jeweler. His work as a goldsmith, decisive for the renewal of this art, earned him a diploma of honor and gold medal at the Exhibition of Decorative Arts in Paris in 1924, grand prize and gold medal at the International of Barcelona (1929), gold medal at the VI and IX Triennial of Milan, and grand prize at the III Biennial Hispano-American. His painting places him, to an even greater degree, among the best Catalan artists of the time. One of his most famous paintings, "The Zeppelin", won an important prize in the competition "Barcelona seen by its artists". Among other distinctions, he won the Juan Gris Grand Prize in 1957, the bronze medal for painting at the Biennial of Alexandria in 1959 and second medal at the National Exhibition of Fine Arts in 1960. Initially trained in Fauvism, he was later influenced by Noucentisme, which tempered the sensuality of his palette. Mercadé knew how to evolve until his last years, focusing his painting on what can be called a measured modernity. His own world is that of the harsh lands of the Tarragona region, which he structures in his paintings with serenity and balance. Although this was always his main theme, he also tackled the portrait, the nude and the still life. His painting is very personal both in the plastic and technical aspects, and in fact he used sand and marble dust to achieve the roughness of the earth and the roughness of the trunks of the carob trees, so abundant in the fields of Tarragona. His son, Jordi Mercadé Farrés, was also a painter, initially training with his father. Jaume Mercadé is represented in the MACBA, the Contemporary Art Museum of Madrid, the Art Museum of Vilanova i la Geltrú, the museums of Tossa, Mollet del Vallès and Hospitalet de Llobregat and, especially, in the museum of his hometown, Valls, where a room has been dedicated to him.