Mateo Hernandez

MATEO HERNÁNDEZ SÁNCHEZ (Béjar, 1884-Meudon, 1949).
"Dove".
Patinated stucco sculpture.
Signed on the back.
Measurements: 21 x 29 x 16 cm.

Mateo Hernandez's style was characterized by the choice of simplified and elegant forms, with meticulous attention to the parts of the body (plumage, anatomy, claws, facial expression) but synthesizing them in compact volumes that give life to a wide animal repertoire. In the case of the "dove", a universal symbol of peace and purity, in his essential representation he sought to capture delicacy with a synthetic but realistic morphology. He invested in it his technique of direct carving, a practice in which the artist works directly on the stone without using previous clay models. The animalistic genre earned Mateo Hernández international recognition.

It is worth noting that this is an opportunity like few others to acquire a work by Mateo Hernandez, since his work rarely comes on the market.

Mateo Hernández was a Spanish sculptor, recognized outside Spain, mainly in France, thanks to his handling of "direct carving". He was born into a family of stonemasons. In Salamanca he obtained, probably through the intervention of Miguel de Unamuno, a scholarship from the Diputación de Salamanca to study at the National School of Fine Arts. He soon traveled to Paris, where he came into contact with the bohemian lifestyle and began to work with direct carving on blocks of stone. His favorite subject is animals, given his special psychology in dealing with them. In 1920, at the Salon d'Automne in Paris, he attracted attention with several of his works. His Panther was sold to Baron de Rothschild for 60,000 francs - an exorbitant price for the time - which opened the door to fame and recognition. Thus began a period in which the artist would be able to work with greater economic freedom and confidence. At the end of 1923 he acquired a two-meter long block of diorite and for more than two years he worked on one of his best known works, The Java Panther, later called Kerrigan Panther, which is currently in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, although it is not on public display. The work will be exhibited at the International Exhibition of Decorative Arts in Paris in 1925. With it he won the Grand Prix de Sculpture and his consolidation as a sculptor. Around the years of the International Exposition of 1925, he made extraordinary sculptures of animal art such as The Crowned Crane, exhibited in the Museum of Béjar or The Golden Eagle (schist), or busts: Eugenio Pérez de Tudela and Miguel Ángel Asturias. From 1928, when he settled in Meudon, until the beginning of the Second World War, he spent a few years characterized by his definitive consecration as a sculptor. In the extensive Meudon estate, the sculptor was to create his largest works, the monumental sculpture he had been dreaming of for years. The Musée des Arts Décoratifs dedicates an exhibition to him between February and March of the year 28, which represents the official recognition of his work, which will be sanctioned by the granting in 1930, by the President of the French Republic, of the Legion of Honor. The exhibition, which was rarely dedicated to an artist not born in France, succeeded in bringing together a great variety of works. The catalog was prefaced by René-Jean, an art critic who had followed his work since his first exhibitions. Years later, with the exhibition held in New York, his work acquired universal resonance. Although the works were initially destined for the current Reina Sofia Museum, the State finally gave them in deposit to the city of Béjar, where fifty pieces are exhibited in the Mateo Hernández Museum, located in the former Hospital de San Gil. In Béjar, a street is named after him.