JOSÉ MARÍA SERT (Barcelona, 1874 - 1945). Sketch... Lot 28

JOSÉ MARÍA SERT (Barcelona, 1874 - 1945). Sketch for "The Four Evangelists, Saint Peter and Saint Paul", 1927. Oil on panel. Study for the back of the apse of Vic Cathedral, destroyed in July 1936. Attached to the back is the label of the exhibition: "San Pablo en el Arte", Ministry of General Education of Fine Arts. Casón del Buen Retiro, Madrid (1964). Measurements: 119 x 169 cm; 121 x 172 cm (frame). Although Josep Maria Sert was to receive numerous major commissions, the work that was most present throughout his life was the decoration of Vic Cathedral. Sert worked arduously on the task, producing several studies of the same subject, which is why there are so many sketches. In this monumental study for the apse, the four evangelists appear with the tetramorph (the eagle of Saint John, the ox of Saint Luke, the lion of Mark and the angel with Matthew). The sculptural bodies and the red curtain give the subject a great scenographic charge, in which St. Paul and St. Peter are also evoked. Set received the commissions around 1900, but they were interrupted by the First World War and he resumed them, eliminating colour and rethinking the perspectives in order to achieve 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 on the basis of a set of bas-reliefs which he did not complete until the year of his death.José María Sert was one of the most sought-after and controversial painters of his time and one of the best Spanish muralists. Heir to the Catalan Renaixença and trained as a modernist, he developed a pictorial style outside the stylistic trends of his time. These characteristics make him a renovator of mural painting and a prolific artist who painted more than seven thousand square metres of cathedrals, palaces, great halls, private residences and town halls in various cities. María Sert was one of the most sought-after and controversial painters of his time and one of the best Spanish muralists. Heir to the Catalan Renaixença and trained as a modernist, he developed a pictorial style outside the stylistic trends of his time. These characteristics make him a renovator of mural painting and a prolific artist who painted more than seven thousand square metres of cathedrals, palaces, great halls, private residences and town halls in various cities, but without doubt the work that was most present throughout his life was the decoration of Vic Cathedral. 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.