JOSÉ MARÍA SERT (Barcelona, 1874 - 1945). "Heroic... Lot 12

JOSÉ MARÍA SERT (Barcelona, 1874 - 1945). "Heroic Defence of the Almogavars in a Tower", for the Salón de Crónicas, Barcelona City Hall, 1928. Oil on panel. The final panel is published in "José María Sert. His life and work", Alberto del Castillo, p. 175. Measurements: 63 x 98 cm. Alberto del Castillo states in his catalogue raisonné that the Hall of the Chronicles, so called because of the theme of its paintings, which allude to events narrated in the old Catalan chronicles, is a rectangular piece, in which the three interior walls, the five panels corresponding to the façade of the street of the city and the central octagon that forms the central part of the ceiling were intended for painting, this being the definitive piece in our sketch. The decoration of the ceiling was conceived as a false perspective which, in imitation of Correggio's great discovery, was developed by the Baroque, and is understood as an epic of the Catalans in the East. Trained with Benito Mercadé and Pere Borrell, Sert was a member of the Círculo Artístico de Sant Lluc. In 1908 he decorated the Sala dels Pasos Perdus at the Palace of Justice in Barcelona, and in 1910 he presented the mural decoration of the ballroom of the Marquis of Alella (Barcelona) at the Salon d'Automne in Paris 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 painted 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 patron Francesc Cambó, he completed the main part of the cathedral's decoration, which was completed with the construction of the lunettes between 1928 and 1929. In 1930 he was made 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.