Josep Cusachs

JOSEP CUSACHS (Montpellier, France, 1851 - Barcelona, 1908).
"Military scene".
Oil on canvas.
Signed in the lower left corner.
Size: 46 x 56 cm; 63 x 75 cm (frame).
The military theme undeniably occupied the summit of Cusachs' production, a theme from which he extracted an infinite number of situations, but all of them linked to the dead times of the battle scenes, to the displays of friendship and comradeship, to the antechambers of war, in short, to the waiting. This is beautifully captured in this painting, with two soldiers attentive to the silence of a forest. Autumn leaves carpet the mossy ground. The mastery of the drawing and the bold use of light are translated into soft chromatic shifts that build up the equine anatomy and exalt the nobility of their bearing. The satiny qualities of the fur, together with the military uniforms, are set in a landscape tarnished with melancholy.
José Cusachs was accidentally born in France, as his parents were travelling there, but his art and his life were always linked to two places: Barcelona and Mataró. In 1865, after passing a competitive examination, he entered the Artillery Academy for a military career. However, in 1882, after a brilliant career that led him to become a captain in the army for war merits, he requested retirement to devote himself to painting. Trained in Barcelona under the guidance of Simón Gómez, he completed his artistic studies with a stay in Paris at the studio of Édouard Détaille, one of the greatest experts in military themes, a genre that was to become Cusachs's favourite. During these years he made his work known through individual exhibitions, such as those he held regularly from 1884 onwards at the Sala Parés in Barcelona, which were always a great success with both sales and critics. By 1890 he was already a regular exhibitor at the gallery, where he showed new works every week. The bond between Cusachs and the Sala Parés was so deep, in fact, that after the painter's death the gallery fell into a period of absolute decadence. Cusachs also took part in official competitions; in 1887 he obtained notable recognition at the National Exhibition of Fine Arts in Madrid with three paintings, one of which was acquired by the regent Maria Cristina ("En el campo de maniobras" ("On the Manoeuvre Field"). In 1891 he took part in the Berlin Exhibition and won the Gold Medal for his work "Division Manoeuvres". Cusachs was also a celebrated military portraitist, and painted General Prim, King Alfonso XIII in military uniform and Mexican President Profirio Díaz, among others. The bulk of his work is in the Museo de Arte Moderno in Madrid and the Museo Nacional de Arte de Cataluña.