Laureano Barrau

LAUREANO BARRAU BUÑOL (Barcelona, 1864 - Santa Eulària des Riu, Ibiza, 1957).
"Procession of Palm Sunday".
Oil on canvas.
Signed in the lower margin.
Measurements: 100 x 81 cm.

Laureano Barrau performs with inimitable mastery in the momentary capture of a liturgical celebration in a high mountain village. It is Palm Sunday and the people wave their palms before the ecclesiastical procession, with their crucifixes and banners. The altar boys occupy the compositional center. Their red tunics seem to lend their color to their flaming cheeks. The white of the surcoats absorbs the clear daylight. One of the altar boys waves a censer and the whimsical movement of the smoke clouds intensify the instantaneous force of the frame. This oil painting shows Laureano Barrau's mastery in the handling of light, in the meticulous description of the features and their costumes (the fine linen lace, the friar's brocades...), as well as the skillful capturing of the crowds that crowd behind the main group.

Laureano Barrau began his training at the School of Fine Arts in Barcelona, where he was a disciple of Antonio Caba. Shortly afterwards he made a trip to Madrid to broaden his training with the study of the great masters of the Prado Museum. In 1884 the City Council of Barcelona granted him the Fortuny Pension to further his studies in Rome for three years. However, with the money from the travel grant Barrau moved to Paris, where he entered the Academy of Fine Arts, with Jean-Léon Gérôme as his tutor. In 1885, already in Rome, he studied the Italian masters and began to send to Barcelona the works that corresponded to him as a pensioner. From 1887 he exhibited regularly at the Sala Parés in Barcelona, one of the most important Spanish galleries of the time, and the most prominent in Catalonia. That year his painting "The Surrender of Gerona" was a great success with critics and the public, as it was a totally personal treatment of the genre of history painting, more vibrant and emotional. At the same time, Barrau participated frequently in official exhibitions both nationally and internationally. In 1888 he was awarded a second medal at the International Exhibition in Barcelona, and a second prize at the Universal Exhibition in Brussels. Three years later, in 1891, he received the title of member of the Salon of the National Society of Fine Arts of Paris, and the following year he was awarded a third medal at the National Exhibition of Fine Arts in Madrid for his work "Escardadora". In 1904 he obtained a second medal at the same exhibition for "Taponeras del Ampurdán". Barrau also held numerous solo exhibitions and participated in group exhibitions in Paris, Barcelona, Madrid, New York and Rome. In 1909 he settled in Buenos Aires, where his work enjoyed the same success and recognition as in Spain and Europe, and after returning he settled permanently in Ibiza in 1911. From there he continued to show his work both in Spain and abroad, and in 1929 he was named "Societarie" of the Paris Salons. Today it is considered that the work he did in Santa Eulària des Riu (Ibiza), at the end of his life, composes the best of his production. Laureano Barrau is currently represented in the Prado Museum, the Getty Museum in California, the Museums of Contemporary Art in Madrid and Barcelona, his house-museum in Santa Eulària des Riu and in various museums in Paris, Buenos Aires, Montevideo and Rio de Janeiro, as well as in important national and international private collections.