Laureà Barrau

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Laureà Barrau: The Surrender of Girona (1886)

Laureà Barrau i Buñol (born December 27, 1863 in Barcelona , † October 21, 1957 in Santa Eulària des Riu , Ibiza ) was a Catalan landscape painter of impressionism .

life and work

Years of apprenticeship

Villa Strohl-Fern (main tenant), in Guida commerciale di Roma, XVIII, 1888

Barrau was born into a middle-class family. He completed his studies in fine arts at the Llotja in Barcelona. There he was a student of Antoni Caba . He then studied the old Spanish masters in the Museo del Prado in Madrid. In 1884 he won a scholarship from the city of Barcelona to deepen his studies at the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris with Jean-Léon Gérôme . From 1885 to 1888 he went to Rome with a stay in the Villa Strohl-Fern to study the great Italian masters. In 1889 he went back to Paris and enrolled at the Académie Carrières . He frequented a circle of Spanish artists around the composer Isaac Albéniz . In 1898 he went on a trip to Andalusia with the Catalan painter Ramon Casas . On this trip he captured many folk customs in pictures. In his early artistic phase he devoted himself to history painting (e.g. La rendició de Girona , The Surrender of Girona, 1886, Museus d'Art de Barcelona).

The landscape painter

In 1899 Barrau married the French Berta Valier. The couple left Paris and first settled in Caldetes . Influenced by Joaquim Vayreda and the landscape painting school of Olot , he discovered the Catalan coastal landscapes of Caldetes, Tossa and later those of Ibiza as an artistic field of activity. On the recommendation of his friend Frederic Rahola, Barrau traveled to Ibiza for the first time in October 1912. Here he specialized in the representation of figures in the landscape. Barrau repeatedly captured the landscape and the people of Ibiza on canvas. He spent a great deal of his artistic life in Ibiza. It was not until 1932 that he permanently settled there. From around 1953 Barrau gave up painting due to health reasons. He had his last exhibition in 1954 in the Sala Busquets in Barcelona. He died on October 21, 1957 in his home in Santa Eulària.

Honors, prizes and exhibitions

At the world exhibitions in Barcelona in 1888 and Brüsell in 1910 , Barrau received a silver medal each. In 1892 and 1894 Barrau received the honorary title Associé del Salon National de Beaux Arts . His work has been exhibited in numerous galleries and museums around the world, including Paris, Barcelona, ​​Madrid, New York, Rome and Buenos Aires. Since 1887 he has exhibited regularly in the Sala Parés in Barcelona, ​​one of the leading galleries in Spain. After the death of Barrau's widow in 1964, the local parish set up a small monographic museum with around one hundred of his works in his home in Santa Eulària. Barrau's ex-wife had bequeathed two houses and artistic works to the parish. This museum was closed again in 2010 due to the inadequate conditions for the preservation of the works of art. The local parish and municipality of Santa Eulària agreed in 2013 that the municipality would keep Barrau's work open to the public for thirty years. Accordingly, the pictures were restored and made accessible in 2014 in the new Barrau Museum in the Sindicat Agrícola building on Passeig de s'Alamera . In July 1985, the Consell Insular d'Eivissa i Formentera held a large anthological exhibition by Laureà Barrau in the Sala de Cultura de Sa Nosta in Ibiza Town . In 2016, the municipality of Santa Eulària published a biographical work by Laureà Barrau that documents his Ibizan work.

Rating

Barrau has left an extensive work of varying quality. The main plant is located in the first half of the 20th century. But Barrau's understanding of art still corresponded to that of the late 19th century. Barrau wanted his audience to enjoy art as a pleasant and attractive alternative to everyday life. In addition to entertaining anecdotes, characters and folklore themes, his works offer relaxing landscapes. Barrau never created his color mixes on the palette, but always directly in uneven brushstrokes on the canvas. Here the forms flow in detail, but the global visions of the works appear absolutely authentic. The roots of his work are partly in realism , mainly, especially in terms of lighting, in impressionism . This luminism in his work brought Barrau into artistic relationship with Joaquín Sorolla .

literature

  • Enciclopèdia Catalana: Barrau i Buñol, Laureà . In: Gran enciclopèdia catalana. 2nd edition 5th reprint 1992. Volume 4 . Enciclopèdia catalana, Barcelona 1987, ISBN 84-85194-86-1 , p. 255 (Catalan).

Web links

Individual references and comments

  1. ↑ The date of birth is accurate to the day according to the Museu Barrau in Santa Eulària on Ibiza, the date of death according to an obituary in the Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia from October 22, 1957. The Enciclopèdia d'Eivissa i Formentera definitely gives a wrong date of May 21, 1957 Date of death.
  2. ^ La Vanguardia Digital: Obituary for Laureà Barrau (Edición del martes, 22 octubre 1957, página 8 - Hemeroteca - Lavanguardia.es). Retrieved February 3, 2018 (Spanish).
  3. ↑ Paloma Miguel i Bonet: L'obra eivissenca de Barrau
personal data
SURNAME Barrau, Laureà
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Barrau i Buñol, Laureà
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Catalan painter
DATE OF BIRTH December 27, 1863
PLACE OF BIRTH Barcelona
DATE OF DEATH October 21, 1957
Place of death Santa Eulària des Riu