José Capuz Mamano

JOSÉ CAPUZ MAMANO (Valencia, 1884 - Madrid, 1964).
"Maternity".
Ink on paper.
Signed in the lower right corner.
Measures: 25 x 21 cm; 51 x 46 cm (frame).
Spanish sculptor, belonging to a family of sculptors of Italian origin settled in Valencia since the seventeenth century. After receiving his first teachings in the workshop of his father, the sculptor Antonio Capuz Gil, and in the Academy of San Carlos in Valencia, he moved to Madrid in 1904. There he worked in the workshop of the sculptor Antonio Alsina, and continued his drawing studies under the direction of José Garnelo. In 1906 he wins the pension for the Spanish Academy of Fine Arts in Rome with his work El forjador, a portrait in terracotta of his nephew Antonio Muñoz Capuz. During his stay in Rome, which lasted until 1913, he exhibited with great success in the city and sent some of his works to the Valencian Regional Exhibition and the National Exhibitions in Madrid. In 1911 he marries the Italian Elvira Danieli. The following year he obtains first medal in the National Exhibition with the group Paolo and Francesca of Rimini. That same year his father died and he spent a stay in Paris, where he lived with José Clará and met Rodin, Bourdelle and Bartholomé, with whom he worked. In 1913 he returned to Spain and made the reliefs for the house of the painter Joaquín Sorolla, with whom he maintained a deep and fruitful friendship throughout his life. From that year on he participated in the most important national and international exhibitions. In 1922 he was appointed professor of modeling and casting at the School of Arts and Crafts in Madrid, by competitive examination. In 1925 he appears with Portrait of a Girl and two Nudes in the exhibition of the Society of Iberian Artists, sharing space with Salvador Dalí, Ángel Ferrant and Benjamín Palencia. In 1936 he exhibited sixty-six sculptural drawings at the Sociedad de Amigos del Arte, in Madrid, with a catalog with a prologue by Juan de la Encina. Among his most important works are several public monuments such as that of Dr. Moliner (Paseo de la Alameda in Valencia, 1919), that of the painter Muñoz Degrain (Palace of Libraries and Museums, Madrid, 1924), that of the architect Justino Flórez (Jaén, 1929), the nudes, where he shows his extensive skills as a draftsman and the strong influence of Italian and French art, especially of Rodin; religious statuary -images for dress and processional floats, in large numbers for the brotherhood of the Marrajos in Cartagena- and an extensive production of portraits, such as those of the painter Sorolla and his family, which are kept in the Sorolla Museum in Madrid.