Pere Mañach

Pere Mañach (* 1870 presumably in Barcelona , Catalonia ; † between 1936 and 1939 in the Spanish Civil War ) was Pablo Picasso's first art dealer and patron of Josep Maria Jujol 's designs . With a feeling for new talents in painting, he supported young Catalan artists.

Live and act

origin

Pere Mañach's father, Salvador Mañach i Trias, was a locksmith from Besalú who moved to Barcelona in the mid-19th century and learned the basics of making safes and security locks there. He completed these skills in Paris from 1856 to 1859 and, on his return, founded a successful workshop in Barcelona.

The family heir Pere Mañach pursued anarchist ideals. After a falling out with his father, he fled to Paris in 1893, attracted by the contemporary cultural currents.

Art dealer in Paris

Mañach helped penniless Picasso gain a foothold on the Paris art market and became his first art dealer from 1900, who paid him 150 francs a month for his paintings. During his second visit to Paris in May 1901, Picasso moved into the house at 130 Boulevard de Clichy , where Mañach lived, and shared the studio on the top floor with him for a few months. The studio had previously been used by Carlos Casagemas , a friend of Picasso's who had committed suicide in February of that year. As a result of this coexistence and Mañach's anarchist background, Picasso's activities became the subject of police investigations. In 1940 these were one of the reasons that Picasso was refused French citizenship.

Peter Manach
Pablo Picasso , 1901
Oil on canvas
105.5 x 70.2 cm
National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC Link to the picture (please note copyrights )

Picasso depicted Mañach in an oil portrait in 1901, which was first exhibited in the Vollard gallery . The portrait titled Petrus Manach originally showed Mañach dressed as a torero , as later revealed by an infrared examination. The painter and model were both fascinated by bullfighting . The painting was later painted over and now shows Mañach with a white shirt and dark trousers. Only the red tie still indicates the first version. After Mañach's death, his widow Josefina Ochoa offered the work to the city of Barcelona in the 1940s. This was rejected by the Falangist councilor Eugenio Fuentes Martin with the words: "We do not take anything from this red". The painting is now in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC (Chester Dale Collection) .

In 1902, Picasso broke off professional relations, although Mañach was preparing an exhibition of works by Picasso and Lemaire in the Paris gallery of Berthe Weill from April 1 to 15, and another in June with works by Picasso and Matisse in the same gallery . Picasso later returned to Paris with Sebastià Junyent from Barcelona, ​​where they presented pictures from the “Blue Period” for the first time in a joint exhibition from November 15 to December 15 of that year . This was again organized by Mañach.

Work in barcelona

Botiga Mañach
Josep Maria Jujol , 1911
Barcelona, ​​Carrer de Ferran 57 Link to the picture (please note copyrights )

After the death of his father in July 1904, Mañach took over the thriving family business. But he did not lose touch with modern art and opened his Botiga Mañach (Mañach boutique) in Barcelona in 1911 at Carrer de Ferran 57 , a decorative objects shop. He entrusted Josep Maria Jujol with the design of the facade, the furnishing and, for the most part, with the selection of the works for sale. Antoni Gaudí , a personal friend of Mañach, introduced him to Jujol. Jujol was his employee and designed the wrought iron sculptures for the balconies and the stucco ceilings on the ground floor for Casa Milà .

Tallers Mañach workshops (1916), now a schoolyard

The good relationship led to Jujol's commission in 1916 to design the Tallers Mañach (Mañach workshops) at 39 Riera de Sant Miquel in Barcelona . These workshops, in which safes were made, had a natural ceiling lighting system that avoided direct light in the work area. They were built using brick. The vault is held in place by a system of girders and pinnacles . Jujol experimented with the angles of the vault, which collapsed during construction and had to be replaced. Most of the workshops are still there today and are used as a playground for the Josep Maria Jujol School.

In 1919 Mañach married Josefa Ochoa and moved to Ronda de Sant Pere street in Barcelona. Jujol designed some furniture for the dining room, bedroom and music room.

Pere Mañach was a companion of Gaudí in his last hours. He urged the following young architects to bring together all available documents and study materials as the seed for a Gaudín school.

Web links

• Becoming Picasso: Paris 1901. Exhibition at Courtauld Gallery , London 2013. (The website shows paintings by the painter from this period and a photo of Mañach, the painter Torres Fuster and his wife, and Picasso sitting.)
• Historia de las Cajas Fuertes Casa Mañach (Spanish)

Individual evidence

1. ^ First Trip to Paris , based on John Richardson's biography A Life of Picasso: The Prodigy , p. 163
2. ↑ Pedro Mañach , see “Provenance” , nga.gov, accessed on August 30, 2013.
3. ↑ ^{a b} Bulletin of the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya (MNAC) Jujol al MNAC . Compiled by Pere Mañach
4. ↑ Lluïsa Amenós Martínez: La décoration en fer dans les édifices Art Nouveau de Barcelone. (PDF; 706 kB) November 19, 2011, p. 7 (French).
5. ↑ Picasso's 1901 Exhibition: The Founding of a Genius. ( Memento of the original from November 29, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. paulfrasercollectibles.com, accessed August 29, 2013. 
6. ^ Jérôme Dupuis et Jean-Marie Pontaut: Le dossier Picasso. In: L'Express. May 15, 2003 (online)
7. ^ Portrait of Pere Mañach, 1901, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Chester Dale Collection
8. ↑ Sr. Salvador MANACH i TRIAS , racab.es, accessed on September 1, 2013.
9. ↑ Interior shot of the playground in the Tallers Mañach
10. ↑ Gaudí: The last breath. (span.)