José Frau

JOSÉ FRAU (Vigo, 1898 - Madrid, 1976).
"Venus of the mirror".
Oil on panel.
Signed and dated in the lower left corner.
Measurements: 85 x 126 cm; 98 x 139 cm (frame).

José Frau flirted with different avant-garde movements, feeling especially close to expressionism, as is evident in this painting in which a woman is gathering her hair in front of a small mirror hanging on the wall. Far from being a Venus, as the ironic title announces, she is a girl whose humble origins can be guessed by the disheveled and spartan appearance of her room. The scene is resolved with an impetuous stroke. The lush body seems carved in wood, chiseled in ebony. His dark skin harmonizes with the blue-green walls and the red bedspread.

José Frau began his training with Antonio de la Torre and Eugenio Hermoso, and then entered the San Fernando School of Fine Arts, where he was taught by José Muñoz de Degrain. From 1917 he became known through the National Exhibitions of Fine Arts, being awarded the third medal in 1924, second in 1932 and first in 1943. He held his first individual exhibition, in the Layetanas Galleries in Barcelona, and in 1925 he was one of the participants in the exhibition of the Society of Iberian Artists, with which he also exhibited at the Jeu de Paume in Paris in 1936. Previously, Frau had also shown his work in the exhibitions of Spanish artists organized by the Carnegie Institute of Pittsburg in 1933 and 1935. From the 1940s he lived in Buenos Aires, Montevideo and Mexico, before finally returning to Spain in 1946. He is currently represented in the Novacaixa Foundation of Galicia, the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia in Madrid, the Museum of Huelva, the Castrelos of Vigo and other collections, both public and private. Stylistically, he began with figurative works, evolving from 1930 to a post-impressionist style to later focus on landscapes with figures, recreated in magical and fantastic environments. In his later works he used a Fauvist chromatism with a predominance of greens, blues, earths and blacks in great contrast, showing, at the same time, a progressive stylization, with the human figure ceasing to have the prominence he had given it in his previous paintings.