FEDERICO BELTRÁN MASSES (Güira de Melena, Cuba,... Lot 96

FEDERICO BELTRÁN MASSES (Güira de Melena, Cuba, 1885 - Barcelona, 1949). "Lady in Venice", Paris, 7-4-1924. Oil on canvas. Relined. Signed, dated and located in the lower right corner. Work included in the exhibition of the Caja Vital Kutxa in 2002. Measurements: 170 x 186 cm. Federico Beltrán Masses was a unique and unrepeatable artist, indisputable renovator of the aesthetic postulates of the beginning of the 20th century. His captivating style, influenced by the great traditional Spanish masters, but categorically modern, can be contextualized between Art Deco and symbolism, with costumbrist influences in its early stages. Masses produced numerous large format works such as the one in question, in which he painted beautiful women, all of them endowed with a remarkable eroticism and a stark sexuality that explain how the painter became the portraitist par excellence of the aristocracy of the time, as well as the first Hollywood stars of the 1920s and 1930s. The sophisticated young woman who is the protagonist of our work is dressed in a sumptuous dress with attention to the quality of the details, and is surrounded by lavish bouquets of red roses. Behind her, a figure covering her head with a turban dedicates a song to her on a stringed instrument. The scene, with the Doge's Palace and St. Mark's Bell Tower in Venice as a backdrop, is bathed in the night light and the deep blue tone that characterized his compositions, earning him the nickname "Blue Beltran". Venice was for Masses the city of his dreams and fantasies. Its palaces and canals awakened his deepest feelings and brought, with their unmistakable style, the fabulous Italian past closer to the charm and enchantment of the Belle Époque. Beltrán Masses, despite his Cuban origin, studied art in Spain. He began his training at La Llotja School in Barcelona, and was a disciple of Joaquín Sorolla. In 1905 he moved to Madrid to study first-hand the works of the masters in the Prado Museum. In 1916 he settled in Paris, where he achieved great commercial success, receiving commissions from illustrious people in the United States, Belgium, Italy and India. He was a member of the Royal Academies of Madrid, Barcelona, Zaragoza, Lisbon, Cordoba and Malaga. He was also a member of the Hispanic Society of New York, the Institute of France, the Academy of Fine Arts in Paris, knight of the Order of Malta and the French Legion of Honor, and general curator of the International Art Exhibition in Bordeaux in 1928. He participated in many exhibitions and shows, such as the one held at the Sala Parés in Barcelona in 1910, the Hispano-French Fine Arts Exhibition in Paris in 1919 and the Venice Biennial in 1921. In 1924 he received the Cordon de Isabel la Católica, and in 1934 he exhibited his works at the Royal Watercolour Society in London. Among his official commissions, the portrait he painted of King Alfonso XIII stands out. In 2007 a retrospective exhibition of Federico Beltrán Masses was held at the Casa Lis Museum of Art Nouveau and Art Deco. Beltrán Masses devoted himself to both landscape and figure painting, although towards the end of his career he focused fully on portraiture. He developed a totally unique style, influenced by the great Spanish masters but decidedly modern. Works by Beltrán Masses are currently preserved in the Prado Museum, the Jeu de Paume Museum in Paris, the Casa Lis in Salamanca and the Reina Sofía in Madrid.