VENANCIO VALLMITJANA BARBANY (Barcelona, 1826/28... Lot 25

VENANCIO VALLMITJANA BARBANY (Barcelona, 1826/28 - 1919). "Maternity". Terracotta. Signed on the lower right front part of the base. Measurements: 55 cm high. Brother of the sculptor Agapito Vallmitjana, he began his training with him at the School of Fine Arts of La Lonja in Barcelona, where they were disciples of Damià Campeny. Venancio was awarded the school prize in 1844. Between 1853 and 1854, together with his brother, he made the statues of the Evangelists for the altar of the church of San Justo in Barcelona, which was to be his first major commission. In 1856 Venancio was appointed professor at the La Lonja School, and two years later he was commissioned to create the allegorical figures for the façade of the Bank of Barcelona, a work which until then, for reasons of prestige, had been left to Italian sculptors. His teaching work is particularly noteworthy, as he was the teacher of outstanding sculptors such as Pablo Gargallo. Queen Isabella II visited the brothers' workshop in 1861 and commissioned a portrait of him and a Saint George. Venancio took part alone in the National Exhibition of Fine Arts in Madrid in 1864, and with his brother in the editions of 1867 and 1876. In 1890 he again took part alone and won a first medal. They both travelled to Manchester in 1872 to portray Lord Stanley and his wife, and Venancio later travelled alone to Paris, where his work aroused the interest of the French public. The Vallmitjana brothers were among the best representatives of Catalan sculpture of their time, and their work was characterised by Romantic reminiscences and a marked realist detail. They also stood out for the great naturalism of their work. Agapito favoured a restrained pathos, while Venancio, undoubtedly more brilliant, was characterised by greater spectacularity and a taste for anecdotes. Venancio was the only one of the two who worked with glazed ceramics applied to sculpture. Venancio Vallmitjana is represented in the Lázaro Galdiano Museum, the Army Museum in Madrid, the Gaudí House Museum, as well as public works in Barcelona, Madrid and Valencia.