Miguel Blay i Fàbrega is considered to be one of Spain’s most outstanding sculptors of the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries. He trained in Olot, carving religious images alongside painter Joaquím Vayrada at El Arte Cristiano [“Christian Art”], a workshop run by Cristiano de José Bergai Boix. In late 1888 he travelled to Paris on a grant from Girona Provincial Council. There he visited the Académie Julian, the École des Beaux Arts and the studio of French sculptor Henri-Michel-Antoine Chapu. After three years in Paris, he spent a few months in Rome before returning to Olot in 1894. He later moved back to Paris, where he won the Medal of Honour at the World Fair in 1900. In 1901 he was appointed a Knight of the French Legion of Honour. In 1906 he returned again to Spain and settled in Madrid. In 1909 he was elected a member of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando and in 1910 he took up a teaching post at the Special School of Fine Arts in Madrid. From 1925 to 1936 he was Director of the Spanish Academy of Fine Arts in Rome. He won first-place medals at the National Exhibition of Fine Arts in 1892 and in 1897, and the Medal of Honour in 1908. His works show an idealised view of Modernism that is characteristic of Catalan sculptors, combining classical lines with a technique drawn from Impressionism. They are technically accomplished and beautiful, and stand out for their elegance, sobriety and naturalness.

Shows of his work include a tribute exhibition by the Museum of Modern Art (Madrid, 1925), an exhibition at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando (Madrid, 1942), a retrospective called ‘Miquel Blay. La escultura del sentimiento’ [“Sculpting Feelings”], at the La Garrotxa Local Musuem (Olot, Gerona, 2000) and ‘Solidez y belleza. Miguel Blay en el Museo del Prado’ [Solidity and Beauty. Miguel Bley at the Prado] at the Prado (Madrid, 2016), coinciding with the 150^th anniversary of his birth.

Beatriz Espejo