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

Collection

Figura femenina reclinada [Reclining Female Figure]

Image caption
JOSEP DE TOGORES

Figura femenina reclinada [Reclining Female Figure]

  • 1925
  • Oil on canvas
  • 60 x 81 cm
  • Cat. P_88
  • Acquired in 1975
By:
Julián Gállego Serrano, María José Alonso

With the passage of time Togores's paintings have come back into favour and he is increasingly recognised as a master, just as he was described at the Salon of 1924 by Eugenio d’Ors, who wrote of him: 'The raison d'être of these bodies is precisely their weight. Their seriousness comes from their weight'. This was a reference to the corporeality of his figures in the context of his 'return to order' in the 1920s and 1930s. Female figures alone and in groups were recurring themes in his work. He created prototypes in which seriousness went hand in hand with a synthesis of form, supported by a highly elementary use of his media, shorn of all rhetoric. A narrow range of colours is enhanced by the bare minimum of modelling required to achieve effective volume effects. His backgrounds are an extension of the bodies of his figures. Recumbent figures rest on nothing more than a patch of sienna colour with touches of grey. However, those figures are rotundly corporeal, with great presence and evidently monumental aspects. References to unavoidable cubist procedures take nothing away from this beautiful composition in terms of originality.

 
By:
Julián Gállego Serrano, María José Alonso
Josep de Togores
Sardanyola (Barcelona) 1893 - Barcelona 1970

Josep de Togores showed exceptional skill at drawing at a very early age. In 1909 he took part in an exhibition in Brussels with other Catalan artists and the Belgian government acquired his work The Madman of Cerdanyola. In 1911 his entry for the Barcelona Exhibition was A Drunk. At this point he had not yet settled into any particular style. He moved to Madrid for a time in 1913, and then to Paris, where he was influenced by the works of Paul Cézanne. In 1917 he returned to Barcelona, where he exhibited the works he had produced in Paris. These were mainly still-lifes, nudes and flowers. He began to work as a restorer and to paint portraits. In 1919 he went back to Paris, where he stayed for a time working as a restorer. He also exhibited there at the Simon Gallery, which made his name in French art circles. Between 1922 and 1926 he staged exhibitions in Paris, Berlin, New York, Munich, Düsseldorf and at the Parés Gallery in Barcelona, where his nudes proved highly successful. In 1943 he moved into mural painting and illustration for collections of books such as La Cometa by the Gustavo Gili publishing house in Barcelona.

 
«José Togores» (Paris, 1922). «José Togores» (Paris, 1922). «José Togores» (Barcelona, 1926). «José Togores» (Madrid, 1928). «Masterpieces from the Banco de España Collection», Museo de Bellas Artes de Santander (Santander, 1993). «Togores, Classicism & Renovation: Works from 1914 to 1931» (Madrid, 1997). «Togores, Classicism & Renovation: Works from 1914 to 1931» (Barcelona, 1998).
Eugenio D’Ors Mis salones, Madrid, Aguilar, 1967. Alfonso E. Pérez Sánchez & Julián Gállego Banco de España. Colección de pintura, Madrid, Banco de España, 1985. Alfonso E. Pérez Sánchez, Julián Gállego & María José Alonso Colección de pintura del Banco de España, Madrid, Banco de España, 1988. Francisco Calvo Serraller Obras maestras de la Colección Banco de España, Santander, Museo de Bellas Artes y Universidad Internacional Menéndez Pelayo, 1993. Vv.Aa. Togores, clasicismo y renovación. Obra de 1914 a 1931, Madrid & Barcelona, MNAC y MNCARS, 1997. Vv.Aa. Colección Banco de España. Catálogo razonado, Madrid, Banco de España, 2019, vol. 1.