Miquel Blay’s ‘The First Cold’: A Masterpiece of Social Realism

Posted on Aug 4, 2024 in History

Sculpture exempt from which there are two versions. One, in bronze, is in the Regional Museum of Garrotxa, Olot (68 x 50 x 34 cm). The other, in marble, which will be addressed, is in the Museum of Modern Art in Barcelona MNAC-(138 x 100 x 70 cm).
Both were made in 1892 by Miquel Blay.
Blay was born in Olot in 1866. He studied art in his small town where there was a very important school of artists (Vayreda brothers, Berga, etc.) that academic institutions had created for the youth of the region. With grants provided by these institutions, he was able to travel and study in Paris (where he met Rodin and symbolism) and Rome. Precisely in Rome, he made the first two versions of The Cold, from which he returned to Spain, and which won the 1st Prize of the General Exhibition of Fine Arts (the Spanish Hall). Therefore, this is a first important work, the last stage of his youth, training, and also the beginning of his maturity.
From that moment, he became a renowned artist and very successful. He began to receive many official and private commissions. Stand out the whole façade of the Palau of Catalan Music (1907) and the reliefs of the Fountain Square of Spain (1929). He established himself in Madrid in 1906 and died in 1936, when he was still active.

The Spanish art scene was still dominated by academics. This situation of dominance of conservative tendencies in art corresponded with the dominance of conservatism in the political and cultural environment in general: we are in the middle of the stage known as the Restoration. However, artists and groups had emerged that had come into contact with the new trends coming from France (realism, paissatgisme, etc.) and they had found a public urban and bourgeois.
In Catalonia, there is an economic and social development similar to the rest of Western Europe, with industrialization as the highest expression. This situation caused some innovative artistic trends from Europe to be well received. C. 1892 Art Nouveau being pregnant, that would make Barcelona a landmark art throughout Europe.
It is a work done on their own initiative.

The work represents a great man and a girl, probably his granddaughter. Both are naked (the version in bronze are dressed), assume that because they are poor, and starting to feel the first cold winter. The old man, who knows what to expect, has a rictus of despair. The girl embraces him, seeking the heat, hoping that the man will give him.
The dream of the girl is related to the world of feelings and sensations, the world of ideas.
The genre can be described as social customs, but with some social criticism, or rather, a call for compassion.
There is a separate treatment of the old and the girl. Regarding the first, we find a great realism qualifiable of naturalism, with a meticulous anatomical detail, although the characteristics of a great man not used to be represented in art, who preferred idealized bodies.
The girl is also realistic, but more elegant. Radiates a certain poetic feeling. Subscribe to this effect with his speech (which speak) with a less detailed treatment of its anatomy and a blur in the treatment of the surface of the figure.
With regard to expressions of sadness also contrasts old with the peace, represented by its state of sleep, the girl.

The main function of the work is to please the bourgeois public. The artistic tastes of the bourgeoisie of Barcelona and Spain in general moved from academic traits and adopted flows from France, however, realism was conveniently modified. The biudat complaint and filled with compassion and charity. This popular subgenre of poverty had some success at this stage, especially in conservative Catholic circles, such as Carlist. Olot school was very conservative, and were prominent leaders Vayreda Carlist. It was in the works of Millet The espigolaires line, which showed toughness and, simultaneously, the purity of country life.
The work is done on the initiative of the author, in order to succeed in an official statement of becoming a successful artist with commissioned officers and important. From this viewpoint, we can say that the work fully reexí therefore Blay became from that moment one of the sculptors of his most solicitats època.

In this work, and throughout his career, Blay was able to move between ways more conservative academic and realistic and innovative style near the symbolism that he learned in his youth. This enabled him to have a clientele among the upper class that was posed or more progressive, if not more so did the aesthetics. This style was kept within a maximum of modernity until 1910. Revolutions Cubist and Futurist sculptors were left far behind, as Blay, did not know or wanted to evolve.
The realistic style of Millet, which corresponds to the old, was fully integrated within the academic verse in 1890, and the taste was very ultracatòlics skilled sectors such as Carlist. It is the mark of his training at the School of Olot.
The symbolism was a style that emerged in France in 18.

We are in a first phase Blay, whose youth he was not any school, but if we can say that from this work he had anticipated features later and a few things: Modeling and gentle girl Blay modernist blur and smooth finish of the Group noia.1907 sculpture in the Palace of Catalan Music. Barcelona.

Inspired and influenced Oedipus at Colonna (1882) Dominique Jean-Hugues Influence of Rodin