Gaspar Homar

GASPAR HOMAR MEZQUIDA (Bunyola, Majorca, 1870 - Barcelona, 1953).
Modernist buffet.
Oak wood, marquetry and leaded glass.
Measurements: 210 x 218 x 46,5 cm.
Buffet with a simple and elegant structure, created by the great Catalan cabinetmaker Gaspar Homar. With a fluid design, it subtly combines the straight lines of the front with the softly curved top. It has two closed compartments in the lower body, four drawers, two shelves and a small cupboard. The handles are bronze. The central body is dominated by a soffit decorated with marquetry depicting dancing nymphs. Their graceful movements and the fluidity of the flight of their clothes, which blend into the foliage of the garden, follow typically modernist solutions. The scene is flanked by leaded glass designs, with a geometric design that contrasts with and harmonises with the organic figurative play. It was characteristic of Gaspar Homar's work to combine organic modernist solutions and geometric stylisation in the same piece of furniture.
A modernist cabinetmaker and decorator, Gaspar Homar began his training at the Escuela de La Lonja in Barcelona, later broadening his knowledge in the workshop of the cabinetmaker Francesc Vidal, who had also been his father's teacher. In 1893, just ten years later, they both opened their own establishment in Barcelona, under the name of P. Homar e Hijo. Two years later his father died, leaving Gaspar in charge of the workshop. Throughout his fruitful career he took part in exhibitions in London, Madrid, Barcelona, Saragossa and Paris, and was a member of the jury of the 1908 Venice International. Homar began his style within the neo-Gothic trend but soon specialised in Modernisme, a style in which he produced his best works until 1918, later devoting himself to the production of conventional furniture. During these years he collaborated with Sebastià Junyent, Joan Carreres and Josep Pey Farriol in the design of furniture and complete rooms, with an exquisite richness of design, figurative marquetry on soffits and furniture which are his hallmark, etc. He incorporated exotic woods such as sycamore, banana, mahogany and rosewood. His production of ornamental furniture (chests, umbrella stands, etc.) as well as beds, wardrobes and chairs was well known. His best known works are the complete decoration of the Lleó-Morera (1904), Navàs and Burés houses, as well as several buildings by Gaudí and Doménech i Montaner. He also won, among other awards, the Grand Prize for Furniture and Decoration at the London Exhibition of 1907, the Grand Prize, Gold Medal and Grand Cup at the Esposizione Internazionale Industria-Lavoro Arte Decorativa in Venice (1908) and the Grand Prize at the Exposition Internationale de Confort Moderne in Paris in 1909. Today, pieces of furniture by Gaspar Homar are kept in the Museo Nacional de Arte de Cataluña, the Museo de Art Nouveau y Art Déco Casa Lis in Salamanca and the Museo Nacional de Artes Decorativas in Madrid, among others.