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Lot description
MANUEL CUSÍ FERRET (Vilanova i La Geltrú, Barcelona, 1857 - Barcelona, 1919). "Dancer in the Dressing Room". Oil on canvas. Signed in the upper left corner. Slight flaws in the frame. Work published in "Manuel Cusí. Devotion to beauty". Measurements: 72 x 52 cm; 118 x 97 cm (frame). A young dancer has just received a bouquet of flowers from an admirer. The painting focuses on the moment when she, amused and visibly flattered, reads the card that accompanies the exuberant bouquet. She is attended to by a servant girl, who remains partially in the semi-darkness. Cusí shows great mastery in the recreation of the veils of the tulle, its transparencies and the fluffy flounce of the skirt. In the satin of the slippers, the satin that envelops the supple torso and the soft flesh tones of the girl, we can recognise Cusí's hand. An outstanding exponent of the Catalan realist school, Cusí was one of the most brilliant chroniclers of everyday life in 19th-century Catalonia. He studied at the Escuela de La Lonja in Barcelona and completed his training in Paris in the late 1970s in the studio of Leon Bonnat. On his return to Spain he devoted himself to painting in different genres, including still life, the figure, portraiture, genre painting and intimate scenes. As an official portraitist he painted Alfonso XIII for the Diputación Provincial de Barcelona. In 1880 he exhibited for the first time at the Sala Parés in Barcelona, together with Santiago Rusiñol and the sculptor Font. From the time of his youth his style stood out for the correctness of his drawing, as well as for his search for chromatic harmony and the capture of light effects. Towards 1881-82 his style began to show a preference for the realism that would mark his most personal work, rejecting all artifice, as a result of the influence of Ramón Martí Alsina. He took part in the main artistic events in Barcelona, such as the exhibitions of the Society of Watercolourists and the first Exhibition of Fine Arts in the city, and showed his work regularly at the Casa Vidal and the Sala Parés. He also presented his works at the National Exhibition of Fine Arts in Madrid, and was awarded the third medal at the Universal Exhibition in Barcelona in 1888. Cusí is represented in the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, Barcelona City Council, the Museu Víctor Balaguer, the Ateneu and the Circulo del Liceu in Barcelona, as well as in prominent private collections.