GASPAR HOMAR MEZQUIDA (Bunyola, Mallorca, 1870 - Barcelona, 1953). Hallway furniture with mirror

GASPAR HOMAR MEZQUIDA (Bunyola, Mallorca, 1870 - Barcelona, 1953).
Hallway furniture with mirror, ca.1900-1910.
Mahogany wood. Marquetry with lemongrass and mother-of-pearl. Brass hangers.
Use marks.
Measurements: 240 x 130 x 26 cm.
This important modernist hall furniture designed by the cabinetmaker Gaspar Homar has a large soffit embellished with delicate floral motifs in marquetry. The lower part has two plinths or bases, one on each side. Semicircular in section, they are attached to the structure and are adorned with floral garlands in marquetry of lemongrass and other fruitwoods. Both elements are repeated in the upper part of the structure, but transformed into corbels or shelves. In this way, the symmetry of the whole is respected despite the decorative richness of each detail. The corbels are decorated with appliqués or hangers in metal embossed with palmettes. The compositional centre is dominated by a large vertical mirror, the upper flanks of which are decorated with finely carved festoons, emulating bunches of fruit among foliage.
A modernist cabinetmaker and decorator, Gaspar Homar began his training at the Escuela de La Lonja in Barcelona, later broadening his knowledge in the workshop of the cabinetmaker Francesc Vidal, who had also been his father's teacher. In 1893, just ten years later, they both opened their own establishment in Barcelona, under the name of P. Homar e Hijo. Two years later his father died, leaving Gaspar in charge of the workshop. Throughout his fruitful career he took part in exhibitions in London, Madrid, Barcelona, Saragossa and Paris, and was a member of the jury of the 1908 Venice International. Homar began his style within the neo-Gothic trend but soon specialised in Modernisme, a style in which he produced his best works until 1918, later devoting himself to the production of conventional furniture. During these years he collaborated with Sebastià Junyent, Joan Carreres and Josep Pey Farriol in the design of furniture and complete rooms, with an exquisite richness of design, figurative marquetry on soffits and furniture which are his hallmark, etc. He incorporated exotic woods such as sycamore, banana, mahogany and rosewood. His production of ornamental furniture (chests, umbrella stands, etc.) as well as beds, wardrobes and chairs was well known. His best known works are the complete decoration of the Lleó-Morera (1904), Navàs and Burés houses, as well as several buildings by Gaudà and Doménech i Montaner. He also won, among other awards, the Grand Prize for Furniture and Decoration at the London Exhibition of 1907, the Grand Prize, Gold Medal and Grand Cup at the Esposizione Internazionale Industria-Lavoro Arte Decorativa in Venice (1908) and the Grand Prize at the Exposition Internationale de Confort Moderne in Paris in 1909. Today, pieces of furniture by Gaspar Homar are kept in the Museo Nacional de Arte de Cataluña, the Museo de Art Nouveau y Art Déco Casa Lis in Salamanca and the Museo Nacional de Artes Decorativas in Madrid, among others.