Laureano Barrau

LAUREANO BARRAU BUÑOL, (Barcelona, 1864 - Santa Eulària des Riu, Ibiza, 1957).
"At the fountain".
Oil on canvas.
Signed in the lower left corner.
Measurements: 117 x 89.50 cm, 134 x 107.50 cm (frame).
Barrau offers us in this painting an everyday image, a fragment of daily life captured through a supposedly objective look, but that nevertheless seeks to reveal to the viewer the poetics of what is known, of what is close. Barrau takes special pleasure in capturing the tonalities of beige and neutral tones that differ and complement each other at the same time, areas densely worked with a short and expressive brushstroke, on which stand out, reinforcing the three-dimensional construction of the space, the figures and buildings that break the emptiness of the scene. The space is thus shown to us with great depth, marking a clear straight line towards the background, towards an alley blurred by the effect of the distance and the atmosphere of a clear day.
Laureano Barrau was born into a bourgeois family, the son of an industrial engineer and businessman. He began his training at the School of Fine Arts in Barcelona, where he was a disciple of Antonio Caba. Shortly after, 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. Barrau's work starts from an initial language linked to his neoclassical training, and evolves to reach a new concept characterized by luminosity and chromatic transparencies. 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.