Josep Mestres Cabanes

JOSEP MESTRES CABANES (Manresa, Barcelona, 1898 - Barcelona, 1990).
"Palau de la Música", 1971.
Oil on canvas.
Signed and dated.
Measurements: 80 x 100 cm; 103 x 120 cm (frame).
Painter and set designer, Josep Mestres Cabanes came from a family with a long artistic tradition. He began his studies at the School of Arts and Crafts of Manresa, and then furthered his training at the School of Fine Arts of Sant Jordi, in Barcelona, where he was taught by J. Calvo. He also studied in the workshop of Salvador Alarma, of whom he became a collaborator and partner years later, with the firm Alarma y Mestres (1939). When Alarma died in 1942, he was entrusted with the decorations for several Wagnerian works for the Teatro del Liceo, settling then in his scenographic workshop until 1956. His decorations stood out for their realism and good knowledge of perspective, and as an easel painter he held several exhibitions in Barcelona and Madrid. Between 1947 and 1969 he was a professor of perspective at the Institut del Teatre in Barcelona, and later he was appointed professor of this subject at the Sant Jordi School. During his career he was awarded the silver medal of the Diputación de Barcelona, the gold medals of the city of Manresa and of the Sociedad del Gran Teatro del Liceo and the Cartel de Oro del Consorcio del Liceo. Although most of his work is in private collections, he is also represented in the Museo Comarcal de Manresa and in the Museo de Artes Escénicas del Instituto del Teatro in Barcelona, where an exhibition has recently been dedicated to him.