Josep Llimona. Grief, 1907
Josep Llimona. Grief, 1907
Considered the best sculptor of Catalan Modernism, Josep Llimona founded with his brother Joan the Cercle Artístic de Sant Lluc, an entity that gathered together artists with strong Catholic and conservative convictions, such as Antoni Gaudí. This group opposed the renovating ideas of the first Modernists, with such strict rules as, for example, prohibiting nudity.
When, finally, the members of the Cercle modified this rule, a emergence was produced of Modernist sculpture, of which Grief has become a paradigmatic piece. The perfect execution of the anatomy of the female body, and especially its melancholic and caste attitude contributed to boosting the adscription to the symbolism.
Desolation, Josep Llimona, Barcelona, 1907