Aleix Clapés

ALEIX CLAPÉS PUIG (Vilasar de Dalt, 1846-Barcelona, 1920)
"The violinist", ca.1890.
Oil on canvas.
Signed on the back.
The model of this work was used by the artist for one of the apostles of the chapel of the Palau Güell.
Measurements: 96,3 x 43,3 cm; 109,5 x 57 cm (frame).

The character represented in this work served Clapés as a model for one of the apostles that this author painted on the doors of the chapel-oratory of the Palau Güell in Barcelona. These paintings, executed on metal panels, are part of the interior decoration of the building and constitute one of the most singular examples of the artistic collaboration between Clapés and Gaudí's modernist environment.

The expressive treatment of the male figure with his violin and the enveloping atmosphere are characteristic of the pictorial language of Aleix Clapés, one of the most singular artists of Catalan modernism.

A personal friend of Antoni Gaudí, Clapés worked in the decoration of several of his works, such as the Güell Palace and the Casa Milà, where he decorated the lobbies with Xavier Nogués. He developed a style of a certain personal and tenebrous expressionism, qualifying him as a precursor of James Ensor. He was also a designer of modernist furniture (Casa Ibarz, currently in the Gaudí House-Museum).

Director and owner of the magazine Hispania, his work is preserved today in institutions such as the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya (MNAC).