Ramon Borrel

RAMÓN BORREL PLA (Barcelona, 1876 - 1963).
"Portrait of Baltasar Farriel, secretary of the city council of Barcelona".
Oil on canvas.
Signed in the lower right corner.
Measurements: 87 x 61 cm; 111 x 85 cm (frame).
Portrait of Baltasar Farriel, secretary of the city council of Barcelona dressed of gala. During the 19th century and the first years of the 20th century, the portrait of politicians acquired a singular relevance as a symbolic tool for the legitimization of power. In a context marked by political transformations -revolutions, consolidation of nation-states, expansion of liberalism and the first democratic movements-, the image of the leader became a fundamental instrument for projecting authority, institutional solidity and ideological values. These portraits, often made by academic artists or those linked to official circles, not only sought to capture the character's physiognomy, but also to construct a visual narrative that presented him as a guarantor of order, a promoter of progress or an embodiment of the national spirit. Through the pose, the attire, the attributes and the environment represented, the political portrait was part of a tradition of representation of power that, despite the irruption of photography, maintained its validity in painting as a vehicle of prestige and permanence in the collective memory.
Painter, draftsman, watercolorist and engraver, Ramón Borrell was the son of the painter Pere Borrell del Caso, and brother of the painter Julio. With his father he learned the first rudiments of the trade, which he later perfected at the School of La Llotja in Barcelona. Habitual of the official Exhibitions of Barcelona, he took part in those of 1894, 1896 and 1902. During these years he held several individual exhibitions in Barcelona and other cities, while directing the academy founded by his father. As an engraver he participated in the Drawing and Engraving Exhibition held in Barcelona in 1938, where he was awarded a prize. In all his etching works it is evident that Borrell mastered both the art of engraving and his technique. Currently, his works are highly appreciated all over the world, and he is represented in museums such as the Museum of Catalan Modernism, among many others.