Julio Gonzalez

JULIO GONZÁLEZ PELLICER (Barcelona, 1876 - Arcueil, France, 1942).
"Le repos sour les saules (Resting under the willows)", 1924.
Watercolor on paper.
Signed with initials and dated in the lower right corner.
Measurements: 17 x 25 cm; 31 x 39,5 cm (frame).

Julio González is not only considered an important figure within the artistic panorama of the 20th century for his sculptures in iron, but also for his excellent, although less known, facet as a draftsman. Gonzalez's drawings are inspired by the work of Pablo Picasso due to the relationship he had with the painter from Malaga, a collaboration that began in 1928 and culminated with the execution in wrought bronze of the sculpture "Femme au jardin". Thanks to his drawings it is possible to delve into the exciting world of González, with female figures captured with enormous skill and delicacy, or with the sketches prior to his iron sculptures, which demonstrate his exceptional and unlimited artistic capacity.
Julio González was born into a family of goldsmiths, learning the trade as a child. Later he studied Fine Arts at La Lonja in Barcelona. In 1900 he went with his family to Paris, where he frequented the artistic circles and maintained contact with Picasso, Gargallo and Brancusi, among others. Around 1910 he began to work with embossed metal masks, with a style marked by naturalistic and symbolist features, as well as by a new conception of the human figure, with synthesized volumes and lines. During these years, Gonzalez began his participation in the Parisian salons, specifically in the Salon d'Automne, the Salon des Indépendants and the Salon de la Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts. In 1920 he opened his own forge workshop, and two years later he made his individual debut at the Povolovsky Gallery in Paris. At the end of the 1920s he began to develop his first sculptures in wrought iron, a material that until then was considered merely decorative. During the thirties his work became more abstract, and the first spatial constructions appeared. After a long list of participations in solo and group exhibitions such as Spanish Art at the Jeu de Paume Museum (1936) or the Spanish Pavilion at the Universal Exhibition in Paris (1937), at the beginning of World War II his work, as a result of the shortage of iron, focuses on a new material, plaster, and on drawings with war themes. González is represented at the Georges Pompidou Center in Paris, the Reina Sofía in Madrid, the IVAM in Valencia and the MoMA in New York, among many others.