The muses that inspired the artists of Barcelona

The newspaper La Vanguardia published a few months ago a book that mentions 25 women who inspired works of Barcelona artists and help us understand more about the history of this city through them, whom were once in the flesh. From ShBarcelona we invite you know about this book, in which 19 employees and journalists from La Vanguardia, offer an interdisciplinary view of the personalities of these 25 females related to Barcelona through the art. Even sometimes muses devoted to the artists who portrayed them…

The volume, entitled “Musas de Barcelona” (Muses of Barcelona), brings together oeuvres that are exposed in some of the most famous museums in the world or in private collections in Barcelona. In the book presentation attendees fantasized with the wonderful idea that these works were, someday, all gathered in an exhibition. For example, you might not know that “Señoritas d’Avignon” by Picasso is inspired by street prostitutes at Avinyó Street in Barcelona; they displayed their body and offered their services to passers early in the century and remained in the retina of the painter. Maybe you also don’t know that Teresa Gimpera is the model who stars in one of the most famous portraits by Xavier Miserachs.

Dalí also have a role in the book, which was inspired by Ramona Montsalvatge for his work called Figura. Maniquí de Barcelona (Figure. Mannequin of Barcelona). Is also worth to mention a sculpture by Joan Roig, that was inspired by his own niece, and the Portrait of a Spanish lady by Courbet, inspired by an anonymous woman of our country. We could not miss the figure of Consuelo, a gypsy woman who had an affair with the painter Isidre Nonell and inspired him to paint some of his works.

It is also mentioned, of course, The Odalisque by Marià Fortuny, inspired by arabesque themes during the scholarship of the painter. We can’t forget “Amas de casa” (Housewives) by Lluïsa Vidal, offering a closer look at the daily life of women in Barcelona, or the picture “Miliciana” (Militia) by Hans Gutmann Guster, during the Spanish Civil War. One of the paintings that are also protagonists of this book is “La Sargantain” by Ramon Casas, with a sensuality and explosive strength thanks to the muse that inspires and stars.

All these women, anonymous or not, underscore the look of women from 1 B.C. to the present and claim the role of the Muses as entities that have evolved throughout the history of art. Also featured in the book we find women that painted or portrayed other women who wanted to assert its role within a still very patriarchal society.