Last time we left him living and working in New York City.\nNow we will follow him until Havana, a city where he received plenty of commissions\nand where he moved with his family at the beginning of the 1920s. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pausas in Havana<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
The first painting that links Pausas with Cuba is the Portrait of Orestes Ferrara<\/em>, painted in New York in 1914. Orestes Ferrara, lawyer, journalist and influential politician in Cuban public life, was a great admirer of Francesc Pausas i Coll. Currently, the portrait of Ferrara can be found in the entrance of the Museo Napole\u00f3nico de La Habana<\/a>, the old Ferrara palace; the only painting, as far as we know, which is publicly exhibited on the Antilles island. Next to the portrait, on the sign that indicates the authorship, you can read \u00abF.Paiyas\u00bb. We notified them of the mistake (July 2019) in the hope that it might be amended. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Portrait of Orestes Ferrara<\/em>, Francesc Pausas, 1914<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 1917, still in New York, Pausas painted a portrait of the secretary of the Cuban state, Aurelio Hevia<\/a>. However, it was Josep Marimon i Juliach, president of the Banco Espa\u00f1ol on the island of Cuba who, impressed by the prestige of Pausas in the United States and the quality of his oil paintings, who would invite him to Havana. <\/p>\n\n\n\n At\nthe end of 1918, Pausas travelled to Cuba for the first time, where he painted\nportraits of notable characters from the political and business world. He would\nsoon become a well-known painter and received so many commissions that he\nreturned the following winter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We don\u2019t know in which year exactly Pausas-Sampere couple moved\ndefinitively to Havana, but for sure it was at the beginning of the 1920s. We could say that it was no later than 1923,\nif we take into account the letters that his friend\nRamon Vilar\u00f3 sent to him when he was already in this city; and the newspaper\nAna\u00efs Nin, in which the writer, dated 18th June 1924, recalled that Maria\nSampere had sold the furniture (we suppose of the New York home to go and live\nin Havana).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Right\nfrom the outset, Pausas got involved in the life of the city, specifically the\ncultural and artistic life; he became a member of the Association of painters\nand sculptors of Havana, and participated in the Fine Arts Trade Fairs of 1921,\n1922 and 1928.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In\nAugust 1922, Pausas painted some decorative paintings for one of the rooms of\nthe Casino of the beach of Marianao, where he had set up his studio, and where\nhe continued to do portraits. \nUnfortunately, the Casino no longer exists, and therefore we cannot\ncontemplate the paintings that decorated it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In\nMarch 1920, Pausas decorated the retroquire of the old convent of Santa\nCatalina, which no longer exists, and exhibited forty-seven paintings. Among these, it is worth highlighting some of\nthe ones that appear cited as being the most important in the Dictionary of plastic artists of Cuba<\/em>\n(A. Rodr\u00edguez Morey, 2013): Spring<\/em>\n(portrait of Nena Conangla Tom\u00e1s); My father-in-law<\/em> (Jos\u00e9 Sampere); Portrait of the Lady of Marim\u00f3n <\/em>(Caridad Salas),\n<\/em>Portrait of Jos\u00e9\nMarim\u00f3n, Mar\u00eda Gay in Carmen, <\/em>Portrait of Dr Julio de la Torre, <\/em>My wife, Self-portrait, Portrait of Coronel Hevia, My\nmother (Leonor Coll), Dusk, Cabo de Creus, Lolita, <\/em>Portrait of the Lady of Ferrara <\/em>(Ma. Luisa\nS\u00e1nchez), Portrait of Mr. Bonet, <\/em>Portrait of Ms Duque <\/em>and Apasionatta<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Eight thousand\ncatalogues of the exhibition were published, many of the paintings were sold\nand the Cuban press covered it very well. \u00abThe success of the Pausas exhibition\nhas surpassed all the concepts of the other artistic exhibitions held in\nHavana. And this affirmation is\njustified by all the newspapers and magazines, with a unanimous criteria in\nwhich enthusiastic praise was made of the art of our excellent painter, one of\nthe most outstanding to have passed through Havana, and undoubtedly the best\nregarding the difficult genre of portrait painting.\u00bb This is how La Nova\nCatalunya <\/em>began its report in March 1920 dedicated to the exhibition; and\nthen continued with a summary of the comments made in other Cuban newspapers: Heraldo\nde Cuba, Diario de la Marina, La Prensa, La Noche, El Mundo, <\/em>etc. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n My wife <\/em>(the portrait of Maria Sampere i Montseny), currently exhibited in the room\nof the bourgeois portrait of the Museu Nacional d\u2019Art de Catalunya, which we\nreferred to in the previous article, was also exhibited in the convent of Santa\nCatalina. It is the second time, as far as we know, that this portrait of 1911\nhas been exhibited in public. \u00abIn the portrait of his wife, who appears dressed\nin a suit and black hat and that stands out on a neutral background, Pausas has\nresolved a difficult problem of technique. \nThis portrait is truly wonderful. \u00bb (Bohemia<\/em>, 21st March 1920). The Cuban magazine described in minute detail\nthe other portraits of the exhibition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Portrait of Maria Sampere, the Painter\u2019s Wife<\/a><\/em>, Francesc Pausas i Coll, 1911<\/p>\n\n\n\n The portrait of\nMaria Sampere was also highlighted in the Vida Catalana<\/em>, N\u00ba. 211 (Havana\nMay 1920): \u00abAmong these portraits and those that have only\nwanted to do art par excellence, there is a notable selection that affirm the\ncelebrity to be enjoyed [SIC]. The one labelled “My wife” for\nexample, you just need not pay a fabulous amount to have a reminder of a\nRembrandt, that he will not see while still alive, nor did the immortal Dutch\nmaster enjoy such satisfaction\u00bb.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Obviously, he connected with the Catalan Centre of Havana and the activities organized there. In 1924, Pausas was commissioned, along with the painter Garcia Escarr\u00e9 and the furniture maker Anton Agramunt, with the artistic decoration of the new headquarters of the Centre, in the old Montalvo palace. That same year, the Centre would celebrate a banquet in homage to Pausas, in the Jardines de la Tropical.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Members of the Catalan Center of Havana, at La Playa de Marianao casino (Havana). From left to right: Josep Pineda i Fargas, Francesc Molla i Presas, Francesc Pausas i Coll<\/strong>, Josep Conangla i Fontanilles, Pere Pons Cerc\u00f3s, Claudi Mim\u00f3 i Caba, and Joaquim Muntal i Gramunt [Source: La Nova Catalunya<\/em>, n. 254, August 1922] <\/p>\n\n\n\n Pausas kept up a very close relation with\nthe Catalans of Havana, especially with Josep Conangla i Fontanilles\n(Montblanc, 1875 \u2013 Havana, 1965) a notable journalist, one of the founders of\nLa Nova Catalunya and writer of the provisional Constitution of the Catalan\nRepublic. And he painted the portraits of Francesc Molla, former president of\nthe Catalan Centre (1922) and of Eudald Romagosa, president of honour of the Societat de Benefic\u00e8ncia de Naturals de\nCatalunya<\/em>. The \nPortrait of Mr. Romagosa<\/em> \n(1928) can currently be found in one of the offices of the current\nheadquarters of the Societat de\nBenefic\u00e8ncia de Naturals de Catalunya<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Portrait of Eudald Romagona<\/em>, Francesc Pausas, 1928<\/p>\n\n\n\n The archive conserves, among other documents and publications, La Nova Catalunya<\/em>. This magazine, notably political, allows us to delve into a time and space in which Pausas lived. A cosmopolitan Pausas, like the art he admired and longed to achieve. This may help us to understand one of the silences we talked about in the article about Maria Sampere and Francesc Pausas in the Museu Nacional d\u2019Art de Catalunya<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There\nare innumerable paintings that Pausas did in Cuba. We do not know where they\nmay be now, because a lot has happened since then, even a revolution. But we\nwill continue to investigate to find out which walls all these paintings are\nhanging on nowadays, and especially Carnaval<\/em>,\na large-sized composition in which three girls in fancy dress appear: one as a\nHarlequin, another as a Chinese girl, and the third as a bullfighter, sitting\nin the foreground on a Manila shawl.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Carnival<\/em>, by Francesc Pausas. Unknown location<\/p>\n\n\n\n In\n1947, Maria Sampere gave Carnaval<\/em> as\na gift to her friend Conangla. According to his descendants, the painting\nremained on the island, when the family Conangla left it at the end of the\n1960s. If anyone who reads this knows where Carnaval<\/em>\nended up, we will be eternally grateful if you could let us know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One hundred years later, finding\ntestimonial remains of Francesc Pausas’ time in Havana – a prolific decade in\nhis artistic career – has been quite a challenge, because History often erases\nthe History that precedes it. And maybe for this reason, it explains another\nsilence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Francesc Pausas Coll (1877-1944), universal and unknown painter<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Maria Sampere and Francesc Pausas in the Museu Nacional d\u2019Art de Catalunya<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blog.museunacional.cat\/wp-content\/uploads\/Retrat-OrestesFerrara-1914-171x300.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\nA prolific decade in the painting by Pausas (1919-1929)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Pausas’ exhibition in the convent of Santa Catalina<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Maria Sampere<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blog.museunacional.cat\/wp-content\/uploads\/040912-000_3490-010ret-126x300.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\nPausas and the Catalan Centre of Havana<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blog.museunacional.cat\/wp-content\/uploads\/1922_Membres-del-Centre-Catal\u00e0-de-LHavana-300x228.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blog.museunacional.cat\/wp-content\/uploads\/Retrat-Eudald-Romagosa-1928-255x300.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\nOne hundred years later<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blog.museunacional.cat\/wp-content\/uploads\/Carnaval_editada-221x300.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nRelated links<\/h3>\n\n\n\n