Bidspirit auction | FEATURED LOT - Lluís Graner

FEATURED LOT - Lluís Graner Arrufí (Barcelona, ​​1863-1929) - 20th Century Ministers - ”Ministers of the 20th Century” Oil on canvas, dimensions: 60 x 100 cm. Provenance: Gothsland Gallery, important Catalan private collection. He studied at the Llotja School from 1883, and his teachers were Antonio Caba (color) and Benito Mercadé (drawing). Luis Graner y Arrufí or Lluís Graner i Arrufi (Barcelona, ​​1863 - Barcelona, ​​1929) was a Spanish realist painter, artistic director, and theatrical impresario. After achieving considerable success in painting, he turned to lighting design for theatrical productions and developed the Catalan lyric theater genre of ”musical visions.” He owned the Mercè theater on the Rambla in Barcelona, ​​where he established the first regular season of film screenings and musical performances. In 1905, he won the bid to lease the Principal Theater in Barcelona, ​​where he set up the Graner Entertainment Company. Under his artistic direction, notable works of Catalan lyric theater premiered, such as La santa espina by Enric Morera and Ángel Guimerá. In 1904, Graner commissioned the architect Antoni Gaudí to design a single-family home in Bonanova, an upscale neighborhood in Barcelona. For what became known as the Graner villa, the architect conceived a design somewhere between Casa Batlló and the gatehouse of Park Güell.