Rafael Durancamps (1891-1979) - Vacas pastando

\Artist: Rafael Durancamps (1891-1979)
Technique: Acrylic on canvas\Signature: Hand signed\Dimensions: 29_1_29_cm
Oil on canvas glued on wood Signed on the bottom left corner R. Durancamps (as he signed at the time) On the back the artist in Catalan titles: "pasturant cows" Beautiful painting perhaps something sketched to understand and value. The work belongs to the time of youth of the artist under the influence of Joaquim Mir. Disciple and friend. It comes from the artist’s home workshop. Rafael Durancamps was a Spanish painter and he learned the craft under the directions of Joan Vila Cinca and the influence of Joaquim Mir, with whom he maintained a friendship from a young age. He visited different museums in order to learn the technique used by great masters such as Velázquez or El Greco. In the first years, the colours in his works showed the influence of his masters. During those years, he signed his works as R. Durán i Camps. He exhibited his works for the first time in 1915 in the Academia de Bellas Artes de Sabadell, during a collective exhibition. His first important exhibition was held two years later, in Galerías Layetanas. In 1926 he moved to Paris, where he created his own style, mainly still lifes and landscapes. During his stay in Paris he opened an art gallery, known as “La fenêtre ouverte”. In this gallery, artist like Dalí, Cézanne, André Derain, Raoul Dufy, Joan Miró or Picasso exhibited their work. Thanks to the gallery, Durancamps came into contact with the Parisian high society. Although temporarily, on his return to Sabadell, he was commissioned to paint some murals for the Museo al Aire Libre del Pueblo Español de Barcelona, on the occasion of the 1929 Universal Exhibition. As of 1932, he exhibited every year at the Sala Parés, although he maintained his permanent residence in Paris until the end of 1939, when he returned to Spain at the outbreak of World War II. He established his residence in Barcelona, but he sojourned in Sitges and Cadaqués, among other Catalan towns, and he exhibited his works in Barcelona and Madrid, where he seized the occasion to visit the Prado Museum frequently. It was in Madrid where he gave the lecture “Lacras de la Pintura Actual”, where he was very critical about avant-garde art and all the ‘isms’ that characterised the art of the 20th century. His work can be seen at the Museo Nacional de Arte de Cataluña, as well as at other museums and collections in various countries.