JOAN BUSQUETS I JANÉ (Barcelona, 1874 - 1949)... Lot n° 80

JOAN BUSQUETS I JANÉ (Barcelona, 1874 - 1949). Modernist bed, ca. 1900. Light walnut wood with carved and gilded decorations. Measurements: 175 x 170 x 200 cm. Modernist bed made of light-coloured walnut wood, a design by Joan Busquets decorated with carved motifs in high and low relief and polychrome gilding. It consists of a high headboard with a cut-out coping, outlined by sinuous mouldings and decorated with carved and gilded floral motifs. The organic and naturalistic layout of the fully modernist headboard is reflected in the foot of the bed, determined by the curved mouldings and the coup de fouet marquetry. The whole structure is raised on bulbous legs and is outlined with fine and delicate mouldings with floral ornaments in relief that reinforce its organic and naturalistic language. It is, therefore, a first-rate piece of furniture within Catalan modernism, as it was produced by one of the best workshops of the time, that of Joan Busquets, and for the perfection and meticulousness with which each of its details were made. A furniture designer and decorator, Joan Busquets is now considered one of the most representative figures of Catalan Modernisme. He began his training in the family workshop and went on to study at the Llotja School in Barcelona, where his teachers were Guitart and Lostaló. In the academic year 1895-96 he was awarded a scholarship which enabled him to travel around Spain, and which he obtained thanks to a project for a Renaissance-style bookcase-cabinet. He exhibited furniture projects for the first time at the Barcelona Exhibition of 1896. Joan Busquets' workshop was one of the most outstanding in Modernista Catalonia and is today, together with the production of Gaspar Homar, the most representative example of Catalan Modernista furniture and decoration. He was president of the Foment de les Arts Decoratives between 1918 and 1921, and supervised the manufacture of the furniture for Gaudí's Casa Calvet. Works by Busquets can currently be found in the National Art Museum of Catalonia, the Güell Palace in Barcelona, the National Museum of Decorative Arts and the Museum of Catalan Modernism in Barcelona, among others, as well as in various important private collections.