José Navarro Llorens

JOSÉ NAVARRO LLORENS (Valencia, 1867 - 1923)
"Boulevard de Paris".
Oil on panel.
Signed in the lower right corner.
Measurements: 27,5 x 43 cm; 45 x 60 cm (frame).
José Navarro Llorens turned to painting at an early age, and studied at the San Carlos School of Fine Arts in his home town. After his time as a student we lose track of him, and we do not meet him again until 1895 when, according to Pantorba, he took part for the first and only time in the National Exhibition of Fine Arts, receiving an honourable mention. That same year saw the consecration of Joaquín Sorolla, who was unanimously awarded the first medal in the competition. Although they were lifelong friends, it is possible that Navarro, given his bohemian and humble character, did not aspire, like Sorolla, to a brilliant career of official laurels and courtly prestige. It seems that he never intended to project his work beyond a limited local sphere, as can be deduced from the fact that in his early years he devoted himself to painting genre scenes and gallant scenes for fans. However, his early works reveal a certain influence of the style of Mariano Fortuny, whom Navarro admired and from whose example he may have been inspired to travel to Morocco in a second period. This trip must have taken place shortly after he finished his studies and he devoted himself to depicting local, North African and Orientalist themes. At the beginning of the 20th century he was hired to decorate a palace in Buenos Aires, although Navarro never arrived in Argentina. He set sail for that destination, but during a stopover in Rio de Janeiro the painter decided to stay there indefinitely. He continued to work in the Brazilian city and held a highly acclaimed exhibition. However, nostalgia for his homeland, the absolute protagonist of his pictorial language, led him to return to Valencia, where he settled permanently in Godella. There he lived the rest of his life in a simple and humble manner, giving painting classes at the local academy and painting tirelessly. His style drew on various influences, such as Fortuny, Domingo Marqués and Levantine luminism, but was always deeply personal, linked to Navarro's own way of understanding the world. His painting is reminiscent of Mediterranean clarity through beautiful transparencies, a corporeal luminosity and nervous, vibrant brushstrokes. His is an energetic, robust and vital realism, which turns light into a plastic and even tactile value, rather than a chromatic one. José Navarro is represented in the Fine Arts Museums of Valencia and Asturias, the Museo Carmen Thyssen in Malaga and in the Gerstenmaier collection, among other public and private collections.