MARIANO BARBASÁN LAGUERUELA (Zaragoza, 1864 -... Lot 97

MARIANO BARBASÁN LAGUERUELA (Zaragoza, 1864 - 1924). La cuentacuentos" ("The Storyteller"), 1898, Rome. Oil on panel. Signed, dated and located in the upper right-hand corner. Measurements: 20 x 32 cm; 44 x 57 cm (frame). Costumbrist scene full of anecdotes, in which a group of children listen amazed to the story that an old man explains to them. Each of the characters has been tenderly characterised. Each gesture conveys something of their personality, so that spontaneity and naturalism emanate from the group. The luminist scene has been resolved with Barbasán's characteristic short, undone brushstrokes. Mariano Barbasán began his training at the San Carlos Academy of Fine Arts in Valencia, where he entered in 1880. During his time as a student he maintained a close relationship with his fellow students Joaquín Sorolla and Salvador Abril. In 1887 he moved to Madrid to see the collections of the Prado Museum, and that same year he took part in the National Exhibition of Fine Arts. During this period he travelled regularly to Toledo, studying its landscapes and architecture. In 1889 he obtained a pension from the Diputación de Zaragoza to complete his studies in Rome. He finally decided to stay in Italy permanently. He opened a studio in Rome, but for long periods he worked in Subiaco, in the Roman countryside. At the age of fifty-seven he returned to Spain to take up a post at the Academy of Fine Arts of San Luis in Saragossa. Thanks to his contacts with English and German dealers, his work spread rapidly throughout Europe. He exhibited repeatedly in Berlin, Munich, Vienna and Montevideo. An anthological exhibition was held in his native city in 1923 at the Centro Mercantil, and another posthumous one was held at the Museo de Arte Moderno in Madrid in 1925. Although he initially painted a few works of a historical nature, Barbasán chiefly cultivated landscape painting and scenes of rural life. His style, colourful and luminous, is above all realistic, with a certain influence of Impressionism (mainly Italian Pre-Impressionism) and the work of Fortuny. Works by Mariano Barbasán can be found in the Prado Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Madrid, the Provincial Museum of Zaragoza, the Museum of Modern Art in Rome, and the Fine Arts Museums of St. Petersburg, Munich, Warsaw, Montevideo and Rio de Janeiro, among others.