Josep Maria Sert

Josep Maria Sert i Badía ( born December 21, 1876 in Barcelona, † November 27, 1945 ) was a leading painter of the Spanish art scene of the 20th century.

Life and work

Sert was the son of a well-known artist, who was responsible for designs of tapestries in Barcelona. His father was his first teacher Sert and also support for his future development in the arts. As a child, Sert was a pupil of the Jesuit College in Barcelona, ​​later, he was educated at home by a private tutor.

Then Sert decided to continue to devote himself to art, in the beginning especially the mural he was interested in the style of Italian frescoes. In the first years of his artistic career Sert produced a large number of works that were, however, neither issued nor sold.

1900 appeared the first work to the public: a mural entitled El Cortejo de la Abundancia. He then received by Josep Torras i Bages, bishop of Vic, commissioned to decorate the cathedral of Vic. Sert produced numerous sketches. The first was published in 1908 in Paris, the response was unanimously positive in French critic circles. The main work Sert was and remained the mural. He was one of the most important artists of this genre of his time.

Among his most important works were among his productions at the Waldorf -Astoria Hotel, the panels of the Rockefeller Center and the Salon of the Spanish Society in New York. In addition, the Justice palaces in Barcelona and San Telmo in San Sebastian, the building of the United Nations in Geneva as well as palaces and houses well-known Spanish and foreign personalities.

1914 Sert created the stage design for the ballet ' Legend of Joseph "by Richard Strauss for the Théâtre National de l' Opéra Paris.

In January 1930 he became an honorary member of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando in Madrid. His most famous work was the murals of the cathedral in Vic, which were destroyed during the Spanish Civil War.

Private life

Josep Maria Sert was married twice: first with the muse of Toulouse- Lautrec and Renoir, Maria Sophie Godebska, which was known in the Parisian art scene under the name of Misia Sert. From 1927 he was married to the Georgian princess Roussadana Mdivani.