Hermenegildo Anglada Camarasa

HERMENEGILDO ANGLADA CAMARASA (Barcelona, 1871 - Pollença, Mallorca, 1959).
"Gypsy mother in a market", Paris, ca. 1903-1904.
Oil on panel.
Signed in the lower right corner.
Work published in:
- "Barcelona i Els Quatre Gats. A turn towards modernity", fig.23, p. 151.
- Museu del Modernisme Català", page 25.
Measurements: 40 x 32 cm; 78 x 70 cm (frame).

The gypsy universe, and especially its dances, became one of the most constant sources of inspiration for Hermenegildo Anglada-Camarasa. When he settled in Paris, the artist was fascinated by this folkloric imagery, highly appreciated in Europe at the time, where women played a prominent role. These works, which portrayed dynamic scenes with a post-impressionist chromatic expressiveness, were influenced by the romantic vision of Spanish exoticism, the well-known "Spanishness" so much in vogue in France at the turn of the 19th to the 20th century.

It was around 1900 when he began to capture this theme in his Parisian canvases, simultaneously with his studies of nocturnal environments. In these compositions, the gypsy dancers -with intense features, magnetic attitude, flexible silhouettes and colorful dresses- occupy the center of the scene, often accompanied by musicians who mark the rhythm of their movements. In the table in bidding, however, the dancer shows her art in the street, in a market environment, perhaps giving a spontaneous performance for passers-by.

Anglada Camarasa is one of the leading names in modern Catalan art, and undoubtedly the most internationally important of Spanish post-impressionism. He was the youngest painter of the second modernist generation, and is considered an outstanding representative of post-impressionism. He began his training with Tomás Moragas, and later continued at the School of La Lonja in Barcelona as a disciple of Modesto Urgell, whom he always proclaimed as his great master, although his mature style was very different from Urgell's. During this period of training, his work was very different from that of Urgell. During this formative period, Anglada Camarasa's work shows a clear interest in landscape and the human figure. After a brief contact with the group of "Els Quatre Gats", in 1894 he moved to Paris, where his style was influenced by Degas, Toulouse Lautrec, Fauvism and Orientalism. In the French capital he continued his training in the academies of Julian and Colarossi, where he received classes from Laurens, Constant and Girardot. France was for Anglada Camarasa the platform for his international launching. His solo exhibition at the Sala Parés in Barcelona in May 1900, and his time at "Els Quatre Gats", provided Catalan modernism with a direct knowledge of the most modern painting in Paris, a circumstance that was decisive in the young Picasso's turn towards plastic modernism. Still in Paris, Anglada Camarasa joined the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts in 1904, of which he would be a very active member, participating assiduously in its exhibitions. During this period his international activity multiplied and he participated in the Venice Biennials of 1903, 1905 and 1907, receiving the Gold Medal in the latter year, a prize he also won in the Buenos Aires Biennial of 1910. He had an individual exhibition at the 1929 Barcelona International Biennial. He was named Honorary Academician of the Royal Academy of San Fernando in 1954, and three years later he was awarded the art prize of the March Foundation. Anglada Camarasa was the protagonist of some of the most important moments in the history of art in the first half of the 20th century, and his success from 1900 onwards made his name an international reference. His work was exhibited all over Europe, from Rome to Prague and from Paris to Moscow, and attracted important collectors in the main European capitals, as well as in the United States.