The last one was\nheld in one of the countries where Fabr\u00e9s worked, Mexico, where he was the\ndirector of the Academy and the teacher of some of the great Mexican artists of\nthe twentieth century. For example, in the Museu Nacional\u2019s exhibition you can\nadmire a portrait of a very young Diego Rivera<\/a>, done by Fabr\u00e9s\nwhen he was his teacher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That Mexican Fabr\u00e9s\nexhibition took place in 1994 at the Museo de San Carlos in Mexico City. Entitled\nFabr\u00e9s y su tiempo. 1854-1938 <\/em>(Fabr\u00e9s\nand his Time: 1854-1938), it included works loaned by the Museu Nacional. A\ncatalogue of it was published that, together with the book Fabr\u00e9s, <\/em>by the lecturer Salvador Moreno (1981), also published in\nMexico, were, until the complete\nmonographic catalogue now published by the Museu Nacional<\/a>, some of the\nmost important bibliographical references with regard to this artist. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Antoni Fabr\u00e9s i Costa. De la gl\u00f2ria a l\u2019oblit <\/em>(Antoni\nFabr\u00e9s i Costa: from Glory to Oblivion), the title of both the exhibition at\nthe Museu Nacional and of the published monographic catalogue, has been curated\nby Aitor Quiney. The 285-page catalogue has texts by the curator himself and\ncontributions by Francesc Fontbona, Francesc Qu\u00edlez, Josep M. Domingo, Rosa\nCabr\u00e9 and Carles Roig. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The exhibition gives a broad perspective of the life and work of this artist, who was not very well known, at least by the general public.<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n In this\nrespect it has been useful, helping us to learn more about his life, very varied\ndue to the different cities in which he lived \u2013 Rome, Barcelona, Mexico City and\nParis \u2013 and also for the analysis of his artistic output, somewhat eclectic and difficult to fit into any artistic trends,<\/strong> and\nfar removed from the ideas of the avant-garde. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Dazzled as he\nwas by the work of Fortuny, his first trip to Rome undoubtedly had\nrepercussions on his Orientalist work. But the shadow of Fortuny can also perhaps\nbe sensed in the appearance of Fabr\u00e9s\u2019 workshops, crammed full of all kinds of\nthe most unusual objects, like the wunderkammer,<\/em>\nor curiosity cabinets, of the past that revealed the collector\u2019s microcosm, while\nlooking ahead to the future of museums. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The workshop\nas a metonym of the artist: Fabr\u00e9s was without doubt one of the most singular\ncases in the history of Catalan art. Francesc Qu\u00edlez, collections coordinator at\nthe Museu Nacional, looks at this aspect in a researched article about Fabr\u00e9s\u2019\nworkshops in the exhibition catalogue. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This is one\nof the exhibitions that the museum dedicates to artists who, though they are\nnot unknown, have never been exhibited retrospectively in Catalonia, or no\nmonographic study has yet been made of them. This is the case with the publications\ndedicated to artists such as Pere Torn\u00e9 Esquius and Ramon Pichot, to mention two\nothers in the same collection. These exhibitions, by definition, always involve\na process of reviewing the life and work\nof the artist, and attributions are often altered, biographical details are changed.\nIn short, progress is made in their study <\/strong>that, by definition, never ends \u2013\non the contrary, the thinking behind these exhibitions and their publications are\na point of departure for future studies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This has occurred\nwith one of the portraits by Fabr\u00e9s in the exhibition, a large-format oil\npainting on canvas in the Museu Nacional. For years the sitter was identified\nas the painter from Tortosa Antoni Casanova Estorach.<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n While researching the exhibition the curator Aitor Quiney identified it correctly. It is in actual fact a portrait of the painter \u2014 among many other things \u2014 Francesc Casanovas Gorchs<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Apart from\nthe fact that the sitter does not physically resemble Casanova Estorach, there\nis no proof that the two artists ever met. On the contrary, Casanovas Gorchs was\na very close friend of Fabr\u00e9s, for example in the years when the latter lived\nin Rome. During that stay, in 1880, Casanovas Gorchs did a portrait of Fabr\u00e9s, to\nbe precise a pencil sketch belonging to the Library of Catalonia, in which he\ncatches him painting. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Fabr\u00e9s in turn did the previously mentioned portrait of him, a very striking large-size canvas, of which the artist only uses part of the top half to paint his friend\u2019s face. The body is lightly sketched and the rest of the canvas is left completely blank. Now that the sitter has been correctly identified, the question is: who was Francesc Casanovas Gorchs? Are there any works by him in the Museu Nacional? Has he been painted by any other artists, besides the portrait by Fabr\u00e9s\u2019? <\/p>\n\n\n\n As an artist\nhe is certainly little known, but he was actually someone with far wider\ninterests. His biography is rather obscure, but the few details that are known\nshow us a very interesting figure. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Besides being a painter <\/strong>Casanovas\nGorchs was an illustrator, art critic, opera\nsinger, artistic director and theatrical impresario.<\/strong> We are talking about\nsomeone with very diverse interests and registers, an unusual case not so much\nbecause of this diversity but because they are activities that by definition\nare not usually combined, although some cases are known. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Casanovas Gorchs, a m\u00e9s de pintor\nfou il\u00b7lustrador, cr\u00edtic d\u2019art, cantant d\u2019\u00f2pera, director\nart\u00edstic i empresari teatral.<\/strong> Estem parlant d\u2019una personalitat amb\ninteressos i registres molt diversos, un cas singular no tant per aquesta\ndiversitat sin\u00f3 per que s\u00f3n activitats que, tot i que se\u2019n coneixen casos, per\ndefinici\u00f3 no acostumen a combinar-se. <\/p>\n\n\n\n He trained at the Llotja<\/a>, at least in 1871-1872, and began a career as a painter, although for a few years he sang opera in Italian companies and he even wrote comedies. For example, in the same year, 1891, that he premiered one of his comedies, Mala jugada<\/em>, he took part in the General Exhibition of Fine Arts in Barcelona with three works. <\/p>\n\n\n\n We also know\nthat he worked as an illustrator in some publications and was an art critic in\nmagazines like \u00c1lbum Sal\u00f3n<\/em> or the\nnewspaper La Publicidad<\/em>. In \u00c1lbum Sal\u00f3n<\/em>, in 1900 he published a short\nbiography of his friend Fabr\u00e9s. He also produced some publications on artistic\nthemes, such as a book about the cathedral in Palma de Mallorca published in\n1898, with illustrations by Casanovas and, once again, Fabr\u00e9s. Casanovas Gorchs\neven sang at the Liceu and, according to R\u00e0fols, he became its artistic\ndirector, although it seems he did other things as well in this institution. He\nwas even its permanent impresario, according to Francesc Fontbona. His career\nas a painter was somewhat uneven, although he exhibited in different solo and group\nexhibitions; for example he put on solo exhibitions at the Sala Par\u00e9s for\nseveral years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Museu\nNacional has four works by him in its collections, a drawing and three oil\npaintings, one of them a self-portrait from 1910. It is in oils on canvas, donated\nby the artist himself, and it was shown in the exhibition Els autoretrats del Museu d\u2019Art Modern <\/em>(The Self-portraits in the\nModern Museum), held in the Ciutadella Park building in 1983. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Casanovas Gorchs was also one of the figures portrayed by Ramon Casas in his famous iconographical gallery, a drawing that combines charcoal, wash, pastel and ink. Casanovas Gorchs appears full body, wearing a stiff hat, reading what looks like a newspaper, in a drawing owned by the Museu Nacional. The drawing would have been shown in the Casas exhibition at the Sala Par\u00e9s in 1899 and, after that, it must have entered the municipal museums via Casas\u2019 major donation in 1909. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Casanovas\nGorchs also had his portrait painted by other artists, among them Joaquim\nRenart, with whom he worked in the Renart workshop of sumptuary arts. Among\nothers, Renart painted the portrait of Casanovas Gorchs on his deathbed, in\n1921, which appears in one of Renart\u2019s sketchbooks that are also kept in the\nLibrary of Catalonia <\/p>\n\n\n\n Some of the\ndrawings by Casanovas Gorchs in the Library of Catalonia, together with a\nfantastic book of sketches that he did when he was singing opera in Italy, were\nexhibited in 1982 in the same library. It was to mark an exhibition curated by Francesc\nFontbona, in which a hundred drawings and lithographs that are kept in that\ninstitution were exhibited. For that exhibition a catalogue was published with\ntechnical data of a hundred works and some illustrations, as well as a\nbiography of Casanovas Gorchs written by Fontbona, the first biography but the\nmost complete one to date. This publication provides us with information about\none of the most interesting personalities on the Catalan artistic scene, with the\nterm \u201cartistic\u201d understood here in its broadest sense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Antoni\nFabr\u00e9s. De la gl\u00f2ria a l\u2019oblit<\/a> Exhibition\ncatalogue<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"ni](\"https:\/\/blog.museunacional.cat\/wp-content\/uploads\/retrat-de-Diego-Rivera-1-657x1024.jpg\")
<\/a>Una exposici\u00f3 i una monografia actualitzada i coral per a Antoni Fabr\u00e9s<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
In search of an identity<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"](\"https:\/\/blog.museunacional.cat\/wp-content\/uploads\/esb\u00f3s-retrat-francesc-casanovas-gorchs-772x1024.jpg\")
<\/a>![\"Francesc](\"https:\/\/blog.museunacional.cat\/wp-content\/uploads\/Autoretrat-Francesc-Casanovas-Gorchs.jpg\")
<\/a>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blog.museunacional.cat\/wp-content\/uploads\/Francesc-Casanovas-Antoni-Fabr\u00e9s-pintant-BC-3-1024x739.jpg\")
Francesc Casanovas Gorchs: painter, author of comedies and opera singer <\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"Francesc](\"https:\/\/blog.museunacional.cat\/wp-content\/uploads\/Francesc-Casanovas-i-Gorchs-Autoretrat-Museu-Nacional-788x1024.jpg\")
<\/a>![\"Ramon](\"https:\/\/blog.museunacional.cat\/wp-content\/uploads\/Ramon-Casas-Retrat-de-Francesc-Casanovas-i-Gorchs-443x1024.jpg\")
<\/a>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blog.museunacional.cat\/wp-content\/uploads\/Joaquim-Renart.-El-Senyor-Casanovas-ha-acabat-de-sofrir-1024x756.jpg\")
Related links<\/h3>\n\n\n\n