Joan Busquets

JOAN BUSQUETS I JANÉ (Barcelona, 1874 - 1949).
Modernist ceiling.
Marquetry and mother-of-pearl inlays.
With cartouche on the lower crossbar.
Measurements: 119 x 67 cm.

Ceiling panel designed by Joan Busquets representing a young woman in profile holding a flower in her delicate hand. The panel is made by means of marquetry of classic procedure, traditional technique recovered in modernism that is based on the construction of a mosaic embedded on the wooden background, composed of pieces of different woods and other materials, cut individually. In this case, the woods of different tones and grains are complemented with delicate pieces of mother-of-pearl as a brooch on the young woman's updo. Even though the figure shows us only her profile, her typically modernist melancholic expression can be appreciated. The whole is enriched by the expressive grains and waters of the different woods, intentionally arranged in search of contrast.

Furniture designer and decorator, Joan Busquets is currently considered one of the most representative figures of Catalan modernism. He began his training in the family workshop, and then studied at the Escuela de La Llotja in Barcelona, where his teachers were Guitart and Lostaló. In the 1895-96 academic year he obtained a scholarship that allowed him to travel around Spain, which he obtained thanks to a project for a Renaissance-style bookcase-cabinet. He exhibited furniture projects for the first time at the Barcelona Exhibition of 1896. The workshop of Joan Busquets was one of the most outstanding of modernist Catalonia and is currently, together with the production of Gaspar Homar, the most representative testimony of the furniture and decoration of Catalan modernism. He was president of the Fomento de las Artes Decorativas between 1918 and 1921, and supervised the manufacture of furniture for Gaudí's Casa Calvet. Works by Busquets can currently be found in the National Art Museum of Catalonia, the Güell Palace in Barcelona, the National Museum of Decorative Arts and the Museum of Catalan Modernism in Barcelona, among others, as well as in several important private collections.