Isidre Nonell
Isidre Nonell i Monturiol [ iˈsidɾə nuˈneʎ ], in Spanish: Isidro Nonell , (born November 30, 1872 in Barcelona ; † February 11, 1911 ibid) was a Catalan painter , draftsman and caricaturist . He is considered one of the great talents of Spanish painting of the early 20th century and post-modernism with a penchant for subjects from the area of the underprivileged classes, which did not meet the tastes of the critics and the art market of his time.
youth
Together with his childhood friend Joaquim Mir , with whom he attended the same school in the Sant Pere district in the old town of Barcelona, Nonell developed artistic ambitions at a very young age. His parents, Isidre Nonell i Torras from Arenys de Mar and Àngela Monturiol i Francàs from Barcelona, ran a small but profitable pasta shop in the family's house at 50 Sant Pere Més Baix (now number 38). Although his father would have liked to see Isidre entering the family business, he supported him financially so that he could devote himself entirely to painting , which brought him little income until shortly before his death.
artistic education
Between 1884 and 1892 Nonell took lessons from various artists in Barcelona. He began his training in 1884 as a student of Josep Mirabent, a painter who specialized in flowers and fruits. In 1886 he switched to Gabriel Martínez Altés' drawing school, where he met Xavier Nogués and discovered his talent for caricatures . In 1890 he finally came to Lluís Graner; this is where his interest in the subject of the socially excluded developed, as Graner often worked with homeless people and beggars as models. The first documented painting by Nonell El Pati or El Patio ('The Courtyard') also dates from this period , but has been considered lost since the Spanish Civil War .
In 1891 Nonell exhibited a work in public for the first time at the Primera Exposició General de Belles Arts de Barcelona ('First General Exhibition of Fine Arts in Barcelona'). It is a picture with the title Interior , of which one only knows that it was an oil painting with the dimensions 69 × 55 cm and was for sale for 260 pesetas .
From 1893 to 1895, Nonell attended the Escola de Belles Arts de Barcelona art school with Mir , where he and his fellow students Ricard Canals , Ramon Pichot i Gironès , Juli Vallmitjana , Joaquim Sunyer and Adrià Gual formed a loose group of artists, which later became part of the Name Colla del Safrà ('saffron group') became known. Influenced by Émile Zola's literary naturalism , they turned away from academic studio painting towards open-air painting and looked for their motifs in the suburbs of Barcelona, especially in Sant Martí de Provençals , where old agricultural areas mixed with new factories and growing barracks. The impressionistic suburban scenes that emerged here reveal a great interest in Nonell's naturalistic light and color effects and show a strong stylistic affinity to the work of Santiago Rusiñol from his time in Paris (1889–1893).
From 1894 Nonell worked regularly as an illustrator and caricaturist for the newspaper La Vanguardia , an activity which he carried out until 1904. Commissions for other artistic and satirical publications in Barcelona at the turn of the century soon followed, such as L'Esquella de la Torratxa , La Campana de Gràcia , Pèl & Ploma , Luz or Quatre Gats , the magazine of the artist and literary café Els Quatre Gats , in the Nonell u. a. met with Santiago Rusiñol, Ramon Casas , Miquel Utrillo , Joan Maragall , Manolo Hugué , Ricard Opisso and the young Pablo Picasso .
In the summer of 1896, Nonell, Canals and Vallmitjana took a trip to Caldes de Boí in the Pyrenees , where the von Vallmitjana family ran a spa hotel. Here Nonell wanted to devote himself to landscape painting, but gave up the project after a short time and began an extensive series of drawings of people suffering from cretinism , a congenital metabolic disease that was widespread in the Vall de Boí at that time and that led to deformities and dwarfism leads. The resulting works are considered the first significant expression of his singular artistic personality and mark the turning away from landscape motifs towards painting that focuses on the human figure - above all individuals on the fringes of society such as beggars, the homeless, the sick, gypsies or Soldiers returning from the Spanish-American War .
With the sketches made in the Boí Valley, Nonell continued to work in Barcelona and even during his stay in Paris. One result of this work is a series of drawings that are executed using an idiosyncratic technique called Fregit , in which the sheet is coated with a glaze that gives the picture a fine texture and a golden sheen.
Stays in Paris
In 1897 Nonell went to Paris for a year and a half, where he met Canals and Sunyer - his fellow students from the art school - and worked intensively on modern French painting. In his correspondence with the well-known art critic Raimon Casellas , he was initially disappointed in the city and in art, but gradually revised his judgment and developed a great admiration for the works of Monet and Degas . In particular, however, he was influenced by Henri Toulouse-Lautrec , whose drawing style and choice of motifs have strong parallels, and Honoré Daumier . He also visited the Louvre , where he studied the works of Tizian , Botticelli and Velázquez .
During his time in Paris, Nonell produced relatively few new works, but was able to show a selection of his drawings (especially the Boí pictures) in some exhibitions, for example in the Salon des Beaux-Arts at the 15th Exposition des peintres Impressionnistes et Symbolistes ('15 "Exhibition of Impressionist and Symbolist Painters") or at a joint exhibition with Canals in 1897, at which he presented over 50 works, which received a considerable response in the Paris press and art scene.
After a short stay in Barcelona, Nonell went to Paris a second time for around a year and a half in 1899. He turned down an offer of the famous gallery owner and art collector Durand-Ruel off Espagnolades to paint - Images with strong folkloric character and often Andalusian motifs, which enjoyed great popularity at the time. Even if he did not take part in any major exhibition during his second stay in Paris, he will have been regularly represented with new works in Paris from 1902 to 1910, above all in that of the Société des Artistes Indépendants ('Association of Independent Artists') organized Salon des Indépendants .
Return to Barcelona
In October 1900 Nonell returned to Barcelona, leaving his Paris studio on Rue Gabrielle to Pablo Picasso.
In the period that followed, Nonell made a fundamental change in his work in that he no longer devoted himself primarily to drawing, but to painting. After one last light - flooded post-impressionist landscape painting entitled Platja de Pequín or Playa de Pequín ('Beach of Pekin'), he left landscape painting and turned - in the thematic continuation and further development of his graphic work - entirely to the human figure. The motifs for his portraits (often half-portraits) are almost exclusively gypsy women . In a radical departure from the picturesque depiction that was customary at all times, he portrayed his models in a hunched position with absent or even averted gaze from the viewer, mostly depicted isolated against an indefinable background. Far from any romanticism , the images show people who are depressed and melancholy. His color palette during this period mainly comprised dark, earthy tones, the backgrounds are often greenish. The painting La Paloma from 1904 is an example of this series .
The failure
When he showed a selection of his works - all from the series of portraits of gypsies - at an exhibition in the renowned gallery Sala Parés at the beginning of 1902, a veritable polemic arose over his paintings in Barcelona . The pictures met with blatant rejection by the middle-class audience and the established critics, as the choice of topic and form of presentation deviated significantly from the prevailing aesthetic , which was fed by the optimism of the well-to-do circles during the time of the Spanish Restoration . One of the few supporters of Nonell at that time was the author and art critic Miquel Utrillo, who dedicated an entire issue of the art magazine Pèl & Ploma ('hair [in the sense of brush] & pen') to him.
Although it was a complete failure financially, Nonell continued the direction he had taken and further developed his subjects and techniques. He was not interested in a discourse with his critics - an attitude that is exemplarily manifested in his saying “Jo pinto i prou” (“I paint and that's it”). Nevertheless, the resolute rejection of his art resulted in a lasting bitterness of Nonell, which led to the fact that in the following years he largely withdrew from the public, hardly leaving his studio on Carrer de Sant Marc in the Gràcia district and only with a small circle stayed in touch with friends and colleagues. Until 1910 there was no longer a solo exhibition of his work; During this time he only took part in a few joint exhibitions in Barcelona, Madrid and Paris.
From 1906 his style changed noticeably and developed from large brushstrokes to small, quickly - almost nervously - repeated strokes. In addition, his palette brightened significantly, towards white and blue tones. As a result, he also abandoned the subject of gypsy portraits and began to paint European types of women, the painting Estudi or Estudio ('study') from 1908 is representative of this development .
At the end of 1908, Nonell began an intensive collaboration with the satirical magazine Papitu, founded by Feliu Elias that same year . Here he published countless caricatures of popular or grotesque figures under his name and under the pseudonyms " Josuè " and " Noè " until his death . These are pencil or ink drawings that are sparingly colored in gouache or watercolor. The distinctive use of opaque white is characteristic of these illustrations.
The success
In January 1910, the first solo exhibition of Nonell's works since 1903 took place in the Faianç Català Gallery , which was to be a great success. For the first time, Nonell sold numerous pictures - including to well-known collectors - and received extensive recognition from the press and art critics. An anthological retrospective was shown with almost 130 works by Nonell from the period 1901 to 1910. With the selection of the pictures that Nonell had made himself, he set his return from Paris in 1901 as the point in time for the actual beginning of his artistic work so exclusively portraits and completely disregarded his landscapes from the previous period.
Instead of building on this success, Nonell subsequently gave up the portrait and devoted himself to a completely new topic: still life . Here, too, there is an idiosyncratic view of things that is characteristic of his entire work: He did not depict decorative flowers or fruit, but rather everyday objects such as onions, herrings or chestnuts. These last pictures, which show the influences of Cezánne , are characterized by a refined, perfected painting style that leaves aside everything superfluous and achieves a three-dimensional effect with minimalist means.
Isidre Nonell died at the age of 38 from complications from a typhoid infection.
Worth mentioning
- In 1902, Eugeni d'Ors published a darkly gruesome short story in the magazine Pèl & Ploma with the title La fi de l'Isidre Nonell ('The Death of Isidre Nonell'), in which the bondaged and vile through Nonell's pictures - as it were the gaze in a held up mirror - suddenly recognize their ugliness and wickedness and rage through the city as an angry mob. Only when they finally meet the author of their painful self-knowledge - Nonell himself - and lynch him, can they surrender to the belief that they are noble and beautiful and continue their old life in ignorance.
- In his well-known series Homenots , Josep Pla Nonell dedicated a biographical portrait.
- The Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya owns some of Nonell's paintings and the Gabinete de Dibuixos i Gravats ('Cabinet for Drawings and Engravings') holds 150 of his drawings.
Works (selection)
- El pati / El patio (1890), oil painting - lost
- Interior (1891), oil painting, 69 × 55 cm - lost
- Arenys de Mar (1891), oil painting, 27 × 47 cm - Solanic-Martonell Collection, Barcelona
- Cap al tard. Sant Martí de Provençals / Al atardecer. Sant Martí de Provençals (1896), oil painting, 96 × 145.5 cm - private collection, Barcelona
- Cretina de Boí (1896), Indian ink and colored pencil drawing with watercolor and glaze, 30 × 31.5 cm - Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, Barcelona
- Cantante de cabaret (1897), charcoal and colored pencil drawing with watercolors, 31 × 20 cm - Colección Santander Central Hispano, Madrid
- Sacristán repartiendo limosnas (1898), ink drawing with watercolor and glaze, 30.5 × 40.5 cm - private collection, Barcelona
- Pobres esperando la sopa (1899), oil painting, 51 × 65.5 cm - Museu de Montserrat
- Platja de Pequín / Playa de Pequín (1901), oil painting, 50 × 65 cm - Museu de Montserrat
- Gitanilla (1901), oil painting, 65.6 × 50 cm - private collection, Barcelona
- Estudi de gitano / Estudio de gitano (1901), oil painting, 73 × 61 cm - private collection, Madrid
- Dolores (1903), oil painting, 162 × 131 cm - Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, Barcelona
- Repos / Reposo (1903), oil painting, 120 × 120 cm - Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, Barcelona
- La Paloma (1904), oil painting, 67 × 54 cm - Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, Barcelona
- Meditando (1906), oil painting, 159 × 126 cm - Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, Barcelona
- Pepita (1907), oil painting, 57 × 47 cm
- Estudio (1908), oil painting, 54 × 66 cm - Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, Barcelona
- Assumpció (1910), oil painting, 74 × 51 cm - Museu de Montserrat
- Natura morta / Bodegón (1910), oil painting, 32 × 40 cm - Biblioteca Museu Victor Balaguer, Vilanova i la Geltrú
literature
- Various authors: Isidre Nonell (1872–1911) . Editorial MNAC, Barcelona i Fundación Cultural Mapfre, Madrid 2000, ISBN 84-89455-37-6 .
- Various authors: Isidre Nonell . Editorial Polígrafa, Barcelona 1996, ISBN 84-343-0817-7 .
- Enric Jardí: Nonell . Editorial Polígrafa, Barcelona 1984, ISBN 84-343-0412-0 .
- Josep Pla: Homenots (Segona sèrie): Antoni Gaudí, Isidre Nonell, Eugeni d'Ors, Bofill i Mates . Editorial Destino, Barcelona 1987, ISBN 84-233-1559-2 .
Web links
- www.isidrenonell.cat Catalog raisonné (Catalan, Spanish, French, English)
- Ciudad de la Pintura - website with a collection of 107 works by Isidre Nonell (in Spanish)
- Homines.com - portal for arts and culture (in Spanish)
- Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya (MNAC) - works by Isidre Nonell in the MNAC (in Catalan, Spanish and English)
References and comments
- ↑ According to the birth register of 1872, sheet 5813 (Arxiu Municipal Administratiu de Barcelona). So Nonell was not born in 1973 as noted in some biographies
- ^ Xavier Barral i Altet: The history of Spanish painting . Könemann Verlagsgesellschaft, Cologne 1997, p. 429
- ↑ What is meant here is the art that followed the Catalan Art Nouveau - Modernisme .
- ↑ According to the registration certificate No. 230 of the Primera Exposició General de Belles Arts de Barcelona , Archives of the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya .
- ↑ What is meant is a former barracks settlement on the outskirts of Barcelona. The name “Peking” goes back to the fact that fishermen of Chinese origin who had emigrated from the then Spanish colonies of the Philippines settled here around 1870 . The area of the Forum der Kulturen 2004 is located on the site directly by the sea .
- ↑ homines.com
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Nonell, Isidre |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Nonell i Monturiol, Isidre (full name); Nonell, Isidro (Spanish); Josuè (pseudonym); Noè (pseudonym) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Catalan painter, draftsman and caricaturist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | November 30, 1872 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Barcelona |
| DATE OF DEATH | February 11, 1911 |
| Place of death | Barcelona |