Josep de Togores

"Gerona Landscape", 20th Century Oil on Canvas by Catalan Artist Josep de Togores

Circa 1940

Josep de Togores i Llach (Sardañola del Vallés, Barcelona, ​​July 19, 1893 - Barcelona, ​​June 17, 1970) was a Spanish painter. Son of Josep de Togores i Muntades, president of the Barcelona Football Club Association and co-founder of the newspaper El Mundo Deportivo, at age 13 Togores suffered from meningitis and became deaf, which led him to take an interest in painting. He began his artistic training with Joan Llaverias and Fèlix Mestres. Thanks to a grant from the Barcelona City Council, in 1907 he went to Paris, where he came into contact with the work of Paul Cézanne. In Brussels he paints a painting (El loco de Cerdanyola) that is awarded at the International Exhibition held in the city. Later an impressionist stage begins in his work. Back in Catalonia, Togores became part of the Agrupación Courbet de Barcelona, ​​and once the First World War ended, he returned to Paris, where he came into contact with surrealism thanks to his relationship with artists such as Georges Braque, Arístides Maillol, Max Jacob or Picasso, eventually signing an exclusive contract with his dealer, Daniel-Henri Kahnweiler, until 1931. This will be his most surreal and experimental period. During the 1920s he began to be known in Europe, and during the following years he explored different styles such as cubism or academicism, allowing himself to be influenced by the avant-gardes of the time and coming to have classicism influences. In 1932, back in Barcelona, ​​he changed his dealer, beginning his relationship with Francesc Cambó and beginning to paint portraits of Catalan high society. He died in 1970 from a traffic accident: he was hit by a car on Barcelona's Paseo de Gracia.