Pere Pruna

PERE PRUNA OCERANS (Barcelona, 1904 - 1977).
"Allegory", 1928.
Oil and pastel on cardboard.
Signed and dated in the lower margin.
Measurements: 50 x 59 cm; 60 x 70 cm (frame).

This Allegory is located in one of the key moments of Pere Pruna's production, when his figurative language reaches a mature synthesis between classicism and modern sensibility. Executed in 1928, the work belongs to the stage of plenitude of his international career, coinciding with his consolidation in the Parisian environment and with the recognitions obtained that same year.

The composition articulates a group of naked female figures arranged in an idealized landscape, accompanied by a child and an animal, configuring a timeless and silent scene. There is no explicit narrative: the allegorical character resides in the evocation of an ideal, serene and harmonious world, where the bodies are presented as embodiments of classical beauty rather than as individual subjects. The figures, with graceful anatomies and elongated proportions, respond to Pruna's characteristic feminine canon, based on elegance, emotional restraint and refined sensuality.

The technical treatment combines oil and pastel, which allows for a soft, velvety material, with delicate transitions between light and shadow. The warm and earthy tones, as well as the atmospheric background, reinforce the sensation of timelessness and reverie. The influence of neoclassical Picasso is evident in the quiet monumentality of the bodies and the compositional clarity, while the taste for harmony and idealization connects the work with the spirit of the Italian Novecento.

Pere Pruna was a Catalan painter trained at the School of Fine Arts in Barcelona, linked very early to the Parisian artistic environment. In Paris he came into contact with Picasso and with avant-garde intellectual circles, developing a figurative style of classical and modern roots at the same time. His work, focused mainly on the female figure, reached international renown in the twenties and thirties. After the Civil War he settled again in Paris, maintaining a recognized and consistent career. Today he is represented in the Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid, in the MNAC or in the Montserrat Museum, as well as in important public and private collections.