JOAN BUSQUETS I JANÉ (Barcelona, 1874 - 1949). Walnut wood, ca. 1895. With maker's plaque. Wear and

JOAN BUSQUETS I JANÉ (Barcelona, 1874 - 1949).
Walnut wood, ca. 1895.
With maker's plaque.
Wear and tear due to use and the passage of time. Needs refinishing.
Measurements: 80 x 139 x 110 cm.
The one we present here is a modernist style table designed by Joan Busquets, a piece of furniture made around 1895 entirely in walnut wood, with a beautiful grain and a solid structure, classical in its conception although modern, sinuous and dynamic in its support, clearly modernist. The tabletop is rectangular, with a moulded and stepped profile in the classical style, and stands on a high waist, with a smooth front and a lower profile that is also moulded and stepped. It has four legs located on the long sides, slightly offset from the corners to prevent the feet from protruding from the profile of the tabletop. The legs have a cut-out, sinuous profile, ending in scrolls, the line of which bifurcates on the inside to form a slightly raised 'x' shape, reminiscent of the forms of a Gothic cupola.
A furniture designer and decorator, Joan Busquets is now considered one of the most representative figures of Catalan Modernisme. He began his training in the family workshop and went on to study at the Llotja School in Barcelona, where his teachers were Guitart and Lostaló. In the academic year 1895-96 he was awarded a scholarship which enabled him to travel around Spain, and which he obtained thanks to a project for a Renaissance-style bookcase-cabinet. He exhibited furniture projects for the first time at the Barcelona Exhibition of 1896. Joan Busquets' workshop was one of the most outstanding in Modernista Catalonia and is today, together with the production of Gaspar Homar, the most representative example of Catalan Modernista furniture and decoration. He was president of the Foment de les Arts Decoratives between 1918 and 1921, and supervised the manufacture of the furniture for Gaudà 's Casa Calvet. Works by Busquets can currently be found in the National Art Museum of Catalonia, the Güell Palace in Barcelona, the National Museum of Decorative Arts and the Museum of Catalan Modernism in Barcelona, among others, as well as in various important private collections.