José María Sert

JOSÉ MARÍA SERT (Barcelona, 1874 - 1945).
"San Antonio y Santa Gertrudis". Study for the decoration of the cathedral of Vic.
Oil and collage (leather) on canvas.
Wooden frame with wear, scratches and some flaws
Work exhibited in "José María Sert, 40 works, 1910-1943", Emeric Hahn gallery, Paris, 2017.
Measurements: 98 x 139 cm; 112 x 152 cm (frame).

Although Josep Maria Sert would receive incessant major commissions, the work that was most present throughout his life was the decoration of Vic Cathedral. Sert worked arduously on the task, even making several studies of the same subject, so many sketches on paper abound. In "Saint Anthony and Saint Gertrude", the bodies take relief thanks to an excellent grisaille work. Sert received the commissions around 1900, but they were interrupted by the First World War, so he took them up again, suppressing the color and rethinking the perspectives to obtain depth. The mural painting of the cathedral as a whole was completed in 1929, but only seven years later it was destroyed. Shocked, Sert accepted the restoration of the cathedral, based on a set of bas-reliefs that would not be completed until the year of his death.

José María Sert was one of the most quoted and controversial painters of his time and one of the best Spanish muralists. Heir to the Catalan Renaixença and modernist training, he developed a pictorial style outside the stylistic currents of his time. These characteristics make him a renovator of mural painting and a prolific artist who painted more than seven thousand square meters of cathedrals, palaces, great halls, private residences and city halls of various cities. Maria Sert was one of the most quoted and controversial painters of his time and one of the best Spanish muralists. In 1908 he decorated the Sala de los Pasos Perdidos of the Palace of Justice in Barcelona, and in 1910 he presented at the Salon d'Automne in Paris the mural decoration of the ballroom of the Marquis of Alella (Barcelona) and decorated the music room of the Princess of Polignac in Paris. In the following years he worked for Queen Victoria Eugenia (Santander) and for Robert Rotschild (Chantilly). He made new murals for important houses in Park Lane (England), Buenos Aires, Palm Beach and Paris, and in 1926 he made, to great expectation, an exhibition of his works for the cathedral of Vic in the Jeu de Paume in Paris. In 1927, with the support of his friend and protector Francesc Cambó, he finished the main part of the decoration of the cathedral, which will be completed with the realization of the lunettes between 1928 and 1929. In 1930 he was named a member of the Academy of San Fernando, and in the following years he worked all over the world, creating important murals such as those at the Waldorf Astoria.