Cipriano Folgueras

CIPRIANO FOLGUERAS (Oviedo, 1863-Madrid, 1911)
"Toothpick".
Patinated bronze.
Signed on the back of the base
On veined black marble base.
A version of the sculpture is deposited in the Museo Casa Natal de Jovellanos in Gijón, Asturias.
Measurements: 43 x 32 x 30 cm; 5 x 36 x 35 cm (base).

This sculpture by Cipriano Folgueras represents a popular and daily scene: a tooth puller extracting a dental piece from a seated patient, captured in an instant of maximum physical and psychological tension. The composition is articulated around an intense bodily dialogue, with the dentist leaning forward, holding the patient's head while he performs the painful operation.

The modeling is energetic and truthful, with special attention to the patient's restrained facial expression, somewhere between resignation and pain. The concentrated gesture of the tooth-puller is treated with professional sobriety. The naturalistic folds of the clothing are typical of a realistic aesthetic. The closed composition reinforces the sense of intimacy and rawness of the scene.

This work is fully inscribed in the costumbrista realism of the late nineteenth century, a trend that is interested in popular scenes, traditional trades and everyday life, away from academic idealism.

Folgueras connects here with the tradition of European narrative sculpture, especially French (Daumier, Carpeaux in its most social aspect). The nineteenth-century interest in popular types is treated with dignity and without excessive caricature. It shows a sensibility close to naturalism, where the gesture and the psychology of the character are essential. It reflects the fin-de-siècle interest in scenes with a strong human, almost theatrical charge, which anticipate modern sensibilities.

The existence of a copy in a public museum collection (Museo Casa Natal de Jovellanos) confirms the artistic and patrimonial relevance of the model.

Folgueras made, among other outstanding works, the allegorical statues of the Tragedy and the Comedy of the Campoamor Theater, the figures and allegories of the monument to Fernando Villaamil in Castropol, the allegory of the Homeland for the great monument to Alfonso XII of the Retiro Park in Madrid, the statue of the "Celta o astur", representation of the primitive inhabitant of Oviedo acquired for the assembly hall of the Provincial Council, the statue of Manuel Pedregal in Grado, a sculpture preserved in the Prado Museum representing a seated woman tickling a naked child, the statue of Don Pelayo in Gijón, another figure for the monument commemorating the Machichaco catastrophe in Santander, and the tomb of Cardinal Ceferino González for the Dominican convent in Ocaña.