Joaquim Terruella

JOAQUÍM TERRUELLA MATILLA (Barcelona, 1891 - 1957).
"Looms".1910.
Oil on canvas.
Attached certificate of Don Marçal Barrachina.
Signed in the lower margin.
Measurements: 134 x 184 cm; 154 x 203 cm (frame).

In "Looms", Joaquim Terruella offers us an intimate and evocative scene of the rural life, developing the action in a rustic interior. A man with graphs concentrates in front of an antique loom, his hands and gesture immersed in the silent rhythm of manual labor. Next to him, seated on a wicker chair, an older woman, covered with a headscarf, serenely turns a spinning wheel. Both characters seem suspended in a choreography of inherited gestures, in a mute dialogue with fibers and memory.

The environment is carefully constructed with humble elements, but loaded with identity: a pot on the floor, a wine barrel resting on the window sill. The walls, the furniture, the floor, everything is treated with a soft and muted palette, in earthy and ochre tones, contrasting with the red fabrics.

Nephew and follower of Segundo Matilla, Joaquín Terruella was also a disciple of Santiago Rusiñol. With the latter he made a trip to Italy in 1923, in addition to spending a season working together in Aranjuez. He also painted in Paris and Palma de Mallorca. He exhibited individually for the first time in the disappeared Goya room in Barcelona, in 1916, and since then he showed his work in other rooms in Barcelona, such as the Parés and Gaspar, and also in Paris, Madrid, Palma, Zaragoza, Bordeaux and Biarritz. In 1956 he held his last exhibition at the Busquets Gallery in Barcelona. Since then his work has been present in different collective and anthological exhibitions such as the one held in the Gothsland room in Barcelona in 1985. In 1993, Ángeles Cortina brought together a series of his oil paintings and drawings in her Barcelona gallery. Joaquín Terruella was a fundamentally landscape painter, situated in the wake of impressionism, who reflected the Catalan landscape with delicacy and subtle transparency. Another of his favorite subjects was the world of bullfighting, and in fact he worked as a bullfighting illustrator for the publications "El Día Gráfico" and "La Noche". He also painted scenes of gypsies and concert cafés. His work is preserved in the Museum of Contemporary Art of Barcelona, the Museum of Contemporary Art of Madrid and the Provincial Museum of Lugo.