Julio Antonio

"JULIO ANTONIO", Antonio Rodríguez Hernández (Tarragona, 1889-Madrid, 1919).
"María la gitana", 1908.
Patinated plaster.
Signed and titled.
Measurements: 67 x 54 x 30 cm.
Exhibitions: MEAM "A century of Catalan sculpture", 2013. Reproduced in the catalog, page 149.

Julio Antonio began his studies in the workshop of Luis Viñales and later with the master Pedrol, whom he met at the Ateneo Obrero in Tarragona, where he moved with his family. He continued his training in Barcelona in the imagery workshop of Félix Ferrer and in 1908 got a scholarship from the Diputación de Tarragona to further his studies in Madrid where he came into contact with the sculptor Miquel Blay and the generation of '98.
In 1908 he returns to Tarragona for a drawing exhibition at the Ateneo, on his return, he decides to leave Blay's workshop and open his own studio in the capital, shared with Miquel Viladrich. In 1909 he wins a competition of the Diputació de Tarragona that allows him to travel to Italy and come into contact with the work of Donatello and Michelangelo. On his return to Spain he settled in Almadén (Ciudad Real), where he began his series of Busts of the race (Minerva of Puertollano, Woman of Castile, Man of La Mancha, the Miner of Almadén) as a means of expressing the Spanish identity and which made Julio Antonio one of the artists who best captured the ideals of the Generation of '98. Within his work we also find monumental sculpture, highlighting the Monument to the Heroes of Tarragona, commissioned by the City Council of the city which will occupy almost all his artistic life. He died in 1919, victim of tuberculosis at the age of 30.