Francesc Torrescassana

FRANCESC TORRESCASSANA SALLARÉS, (Barcelona, 1845 - 1918).
"Easter".
Oil on canvas.
Signed in the lower right corner. With labels on the back of the Barcelona rooms Parés and Nonell.
Measurements: 182 x 144 cm; 205 x 166 cm (frame).

This work was part of the Extraordinary Exhibition of Great Masters held at the Sala Nonell in Barcelona in 1982, and is reproduced in the catalog that was published on the occasion of the exhibition.
A painter of landscapes and portraits, Francesc Torrescassana studied at the Escuela Bellas Artes in Barcelona, where he was a disciple of Ramón Martí Alsina. In 1864 he was awarded an honorable mention at the National Exhibition in Madrid. He was granted a scholarship in Rome and later traveled to Paris, where he came into contact with the main pictorial currents of the time. On his return to Barcelona, he devoted himself to the production of history and costume paintings. He made his debut in 1864 at the National Exhibition of Fine Arts, achieving an honorable mention. In the following years he took part in the Fine Arts Exhibitions of Barcelona (1866 and 1868), presenting a total of twenty-six paintings, mainly landscapes but also two figurative themes. In 1869 he attended the inauguration of the Suez Canal, where he made several reportage paintings. On his return, he presented these works at the Fine Arts Exhibition in Barcelona in 1870, among them "Passage of the first Spanish ship through the Suez Canal", "Memories of Egypt" and "Fantasy". The following year he made a trip to Madrid to broaden his training by copying works by the great masters at the Prado Museum. On his return to Barcelona he continued to show his painting at the Fine Arts Exhibitions held in the city, with "Dos marinas (estudios del natural)", presented that same year of 1871; a marine in 1872 and "Filósofo en ciernes", a figurative theme, in 1874. A year later, in 1875, he began his teaching career at the School for the Blind and Deaf and Dumb, replacing Tomás Padró. While he continued to take part in the most important competitions held in Barcelona, Torrescassana held an important exhibition at the Bassols gallery in the same city (1876). However, the precarious state of his wife's health forced him to sell several of his paintings, although his success led him to continue to hold exhibitions in important Barcelona galleries, among them the Parés (1884, 1887, 1888) and the Círculo del Liceo (1887), and also in the Martotell Museum (Exhibition of Watercolourists, 1885). In 1888 he participates with "Vol d'alba" in the Universal Exposition of Barcelona, a painting that was very diffused thanks to photographic reproductions, and that later would be presented in the Exposition of Paris. His successes followed at the Fine Arts Exhibitions of 1891, 1894 and 1896, but in 1898 one of his works was rejected because the jury considered it to be too closely linked to the realist heritage. At the same time, Torrescassana developed an important career as a portraitist, painting prominent figures of the time such as the military man Sánchez Lamela or the folklorist Cels Gomis. He also tackled religious themes, with works such as "La madre de los hijos de Zebedeo a los pies de Jesús" ("The Mother of the sons of Zebedee at the feet of Jesus", 1898). In the following years he would hold important exhibitions in the Olot competition (1900), the Equestrian Circle Exhibition, the 1907 Art Exhibition, the 1909 Rovira Exhibition in Barcelona, the 1910 Portraits Exhibition, the 1911 International Art Exhibition and the 1913 Barcelona Artistic Circle Exhibition. He also exhibited his work abroad at the Brussels Exhibition of 1910. Torrescassana was also an active participant in the cultural life of Barcelona at the time; he was president of the Board of Governors of the Montepío de los Artistas Españoles, and in 1910 he was appointed vice-president of the Círculo Artístico. It is also worth mentioning the importance of his workshop, since he trained artists of the stature of Pablo Audouard, Joaquim Renart, Francesc Gimeno, Pau Roig and Ana Risueño. At first his painting reflects a profound influence of his master, within a bourgeois realism. However, little by little he distanced himself from Martí Alsina's style, working with a softer and sweeter palette. In the last twenty years of his life he devoted himself to landscapes, with a great quality of light and transparency, built on textures, where parallels with impressionism can be perceived. During these years he continued to cultivate portraiture, with works such as Miquel Vilaregut (1911). It was during this period that his personality and creative vivacity were reaffirmed. In 1934 a monographic exhibition of his work was dedicated to him at the Syra Galleries in Barcelona. His works are kept in the MACBA in Barcelona, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Madrid, the Museum of the Abbey of Montserrat and the Louvre in Paris, as well as in the Casa Vicens of Antonio Gaudí, in Barcelona.