Pablo Antonio de Béjar Novella

PABLO ANTONIO DE BÉJAR NOVELLA (Barcelona, 1869 - London, 1920).
"Bust of a lady", 1904.
Pastel on canvas.
Signed and dated in the lower left area.
Measurements: 83 x 63 cm; 102 x 82 cm (frame).
Béjar, together with Joaquín Vahamonde, capitalized the specialty of the high bourgeois portrait to the pastel among the high society alfonsina of the first decades of the XX century, the painting is in addition extraordinarily representative of the true adoration that felt both pastelistas by the English diecioechesca portrait painting, whose decorative elegance tried to imitate and was the fundamental key of its success in the Spain of the time. On this occasion, Béjar was inspired by the portrait of a young woman in elegant dress.
Spanish painter, illustrator and draftsman, specialized in the pastel portrait genre, who also cultivated decorative painting. He trained at the School of Fine Arts in Barcelona and at the School of San Fernando in Madrid, extending his training in Rome, where he was a student of Luis de Madrazo and José Gutiérrez de la Vega. As a decorative painter, the ornamentations he made in the palace of the Marquis of Marianao and in the residence of the Marquis of Alella, both in Barcelona, stand out. He participated in the Fine Arts Exhibition of Barcelona in 1895 and in the National Exhibitions of Fine Arts, where he obtained honorary mentions in 1895 and 1904, respectively. He participated as an illustrator in the Álbum Salón de la Editorial Seguí. In 1909 he traveled to America and later to London, where he lived until his death (Balbás Ibáñez, Mª S., E.M.N.P., 2006, T.II, page 478).