Helena Almeida: 'Seduzir' [To Seduce, 2002] (detail)

Collection

Busto femenino [Female Bust]

Image caption
JOSEP REYNÉS I GURGUÍ

Busto femenino [Female Bust]

  • 1886
  • Bronze
  • 90 x 40 x 40 cm
  • Cat. E_65
  • Acquired in 1983
By:
Isabel Tejeda

Catalan sculptor Josep Reynés i Gurguí sculpted this female bust on his return to Barcelona after training in Paris under Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux. It is not a portrait but one of many decorative sculptures erected in public places for purely ornamental purposes. It stands on a square base of a type that Reynés used in several other works also dating from around the turn of the century, and depicts a woman from the waist up, with only the start of her arms shown, as usual in busts. Her dress, with a low neck-line and tight waist, is set low on her shoulders so that her breasts are partly visible. This gives the piece an air of daring and impropriety. The same freshness and insolence can be seen in the facial expression: the figure is smiling openly, so that her teeth are showing and her whole face is taut. The reason for this lies in her hairdo: her hair is gathered in a bun and topped by a hat in the shape of a nest in which two birds are apparently living. The work is in the realistic, academic style that was predominant at the time. It is perfectly finished in every detail and shows clear French influences.

Isabel Tejeda

 
By:
Isabel Tejeda
Josep Reynés i Gurguí
Barcelona 1850 - Barcelona 1926

Catalan sculptor Josep Reynés i Gurguí trained at the La Lonja school under the brothers Agapit and Venanci Vallmitjana. In 1873 he moved to Paris to continue his education. There he worked at the studios of Rossend Nobas, where he met Manuel Fuxà and Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux. Carpeaux was interested in Baroque art, which he had studied in Rome, and he taught Reynes the naturalistic Baroque style of movement and expression, thus helping to make his work less formal and academic. Reynes returned to Barcelona in 1876 and spent most of his career on monumental works and interior decoration.

His work is characterised by its French influence and by his attention to anecdotal detail and decorative motifs. It cannot really be regarded as modernist, but it does show clear modernist influences. Gaya Nuño believed that Reynés' return to Barcelona and his need to keep more conservative patrons happy greatly limited his creative potential.

In 1890 he won the First Prize medal at the National Exhibition for his sculpture Violinist, which Gaya Nuño sees as influenced by Carpeaux, while Judit Subirachs considers it strictly realistic. Almost all his works are in Barcelona. They include Roger de Llúria (1885); Cervantes (Library of Catalonia, 1885); Barcelona rep les nacions (winner of the Silver Medal at the Universal Exposition of 1888); Statue of Maria Christina on Horseback (1891); and Gerro amb nens (1893), a much-liked work influenced by the Rococo style that stands in the city's La Ciutadella park. He was also commissioned to produce numerous funeral monuments for Montjuic cemetery.

Isabel Tejeda

 
 
Vv.Aa. Colección Banco de España. Catálogo razonado, Madrid, Banco de España, 2019, vol. 1.