Eusebi Arnau

EUSEBI ARNAU MASCORT (Barcelona, 1864 - 1933).
"Mother's kiss", ca. 1898.
Marble.
Signed.
Measurements: 65 x 73 x 52 cm.

Exhibitions:
- Museu Europeu d'Art Modern (MEAM), "Un segle de escultura catalana", 2013. Reproduced in catalog, p. 67.
- Museu Europeu d'Art Modern (MEAM), "Somnis i tentacions. La escultura catalana en temps del Modernisme", 2025. Reproduced in catalog, p. 57.

A work of special sensitivity within Eusebi Arnau's production, this marble corresponds to one of the most appreciated and characteristic themes of modernist symbolism: the exaltation of motherhood as an affective and moral ideal. Its documented presence in two important recent institutional exhibitions underlines its historical relevance and its attractiveness within the Catalan sculpture market at the end of the century.

The composition shows the mother delicately bending her face to kiss the child's forehead, resolved with a restrained intensity that avoids easy sentimentality and opts for a sober, intimate and deeply human emotion. Arnau combines a soft modeling in the faces and bodies with areas of coarser carving at the base, a very characteristic resource of his plastic language, which provides material contrast and accentuates the centrality of the emotional bond. The anatomical balance, the serenity of the expressions and the purity of the marble reinforce the symbolic reading of the piece.

Executed around 1898, the work belongs to a key moment in Arnau's career, in the midst of the consolidation of his artistic maturity and in parallel to his growing institutional prestige. During this period he alternated large architectural commissions with sculptures of an intimate and emotional nature, destined both for exhibition and private collecting, consolidating the refined and sensitive language that made him one of the essential figures of Catalan modernist sculpture.

Trained in Barcelona, Rome and Paris, Eusebi Arnau became one of the leading sculptors of modernism, collaborating with architects such as Domènech i Montaner, Puig i Cadafalch and Enric Sagnier on some of the most emblematic buildings of modernist Barcelona. Parallel to his architectural work, he developed an independent production marked by expressive delicacy and formal refinement, especially in feminine and maternal representations such as the present one, which illustrate his ability to unite classical elegance and restrained emotionality. His works are present in important public collections, among them the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya.