Joan Clará

JOAN CLARÁ AYATS (Olot, Girona, 1878 - Barcelona, 1958).
"Girl putting on a shoe".
Patinated bronze.
Signed on the side and numbered on the back.
With foundry stamp "P.B. A".
Measurements: 25 x 11 x 14,5 cm.
Joan Clarà was brother of the also sculptor Josep Clarà, with whom he traveled to Toulouse and Paris. Settled at the beginning of the 20th century in Paris, he exhibited his pieces at the Salon des Artistes Français in the capital, as well as holding exhibitions in Madrid and Barcelona. His works were cast by the Foundry of Artistic Bronzes of Paris, and in this city he directed a private academy, enjoying there as much prestige as his brother. Joan Clarà specialized in the production of small bronzes with children's themes, modeled with a fine sensitivity. He represented happy, laughing children in naturalistic attitudes. His chryselephantine sculptures were also famous, which stand out for their use of long and bulky dresses, very fashionable in previous centuries, which gave his figures a marked sensation of weight and volume. As for his children's pieces, Clarà reflected a grace and freshness that created a school, rising as the main representative of the naturalist trend in Spanish sculpture. This sculptor knew how to represent with great realism all the expressions and gestures of the little ones. And, although his figures preserve the realistic tradition of the 19th century, in them one can appreciate, through the spontaneity of the gestures and the treatment of the patinas of the bronzes, a search for freedom that brings the Catalan sculptor closer to the modernist ideals of the European artists of the beginning of the 20th century. Joan Clarà is currently represented in the Manuel Ramos Andrade Foundation and the Museum of Art Deco and Art Nouveau Casa Lis in Salamanca, among others, as well as in numerous private collections.