Barcelona, City of Art Nouveau Isabel Segura Soriano, Doctor in History, Barcelona

Barcelona, City of Art Nouveau Isabel Segura Soriano, Doctor in History, Barcelona Barcelona, like Nancy, made its fortunes out of the textile industry. Barcelona had become industrialised and the Industrial Revolution in Barcelona, and throughout Catalonia, was brought about thanks to female labour. In the middle of the nineteenth century, the old walled city had become stifled by the walls which had prevented the building of more factories. It wasn’t until 1854 that it was decided to demolish the city walls and a large area of land outside the walls was set aside for the city’s expansion. Before devising his Pla d’Eixample (Expansion Plan) of the City, the Engineer Ildefons Cerdà conducted, what is considered to be, the first sociological study on the living conditions of the working classes. This study explained that in the middle of the nineteenth century in Barcelona, the working classes were divided between 40% women, 40% men and 20% children. Textile was the most important sector of industry and the textile industry at the beginning of the twentieth century was made up of over 80% female labour. If you permit me, I am confident to state that the Industrial Revolution in Barcelona, and throughout Catalonia, was achieved thanks to women The growth of the City was unstoppable: in 1850 there were one hundred and seventy- five inhabitants; this number increased to some five hundred thousand by 1900. This growth is not only due to organic in nature, but another important factor of this growth of population was the incorporation of some of the villages that were independent of the Barcelona city plan. Another factor was immigration from the rural areas of Catalonia, which became established in the City attracted by the hope of finding better living conditions. Barcelona underwent a process similar to other European and North American cities; the smoke of the factories was confused with the smoke of the trains heading for the city Whereas the growth in population brought with it overcrowding of the existing living spaces in the Old City, new construction was concentrated mainly in the extension area, the Eixample . The Eixample district the City, set aside as a residential and 1 commercial zone, is where most of the examples of Art Nouveau architecture are to be found. Many women, a very large number of women, were interested in this new architectonic language. They employed and financed the most modern architects to dress their houses for them One such woman was Àngela Brutau who, in the name of her three daughters, Rosa, Josefa and Àngela Terrades i Brutau, made a planning application to the City Council on the 8 th of January 1904 for the construction of three houses on Avinguda Diagonal which had been commissioned to the Architect Josep Puig i Cadafalch 1. In 1905, construction was started on a building, which linked the three different houses with a unified style and unifying features. The building was named the Casa Terrades (after Brutau’s husband) but was popularly known as “Casa de les Punxes” (the house of spires), eluding to its typical appearance as multi-family housing and owing to it being one of the most striking and largest architectural constructions of the period On the elevations the galleries stand out with their vertical openings, one of these being crowned by a statue of Sant Jordi (St George) with the inscription in gothic letters proclaiming “Sant Jordi, patró de Catalunya. Torneu-nos la llibertat” ( in Catalan : St Geroge, the patron-saint of Catalonia. Return our freedom to us!). This inscription, situated 30 metres above street level, caused the Architect to be prosecuted; his memoirs give us a picture of the frenetic undertakings (quote in Castilian Spanish): “…at ten o’clock in the morning, His Excellency Governor lodged his prosecution at the police court; at three o’clock the court attended the location of the “crime” and at ten in the evening, the judge ordered me to plead at the Law Courts… But the house was guarded, it was almost blocked-in by a policial army… We are returning, in effect, to times in which it is subversive to shout ‘long live freedom!’” 2 A question arises from this inscription: whose idea was it? Was it the Architect or the owner? We don’t know the answer to this, but we can say indisputably that it was erected with the consent of Mrs Brutau, who stood by her convictions. These words, at a time when the relationship between Catalonia and the Spanish State were being renegotiated, was a declaration of principles of which Mrs Brutau did not stand on the side-line – she knew perfectly well the consequences could arise from such a declaration. She was a member of the Catalan Aristocracy which pushed for the freedom of Catalonia from a state, the Spanish State, still dominated by what were 2 known as the passive classes, which showed little interest in standing up for the rights of the new emergent class A number of years before, language had become a sign of identity, and during the final years of the nineteenth century and the first years of the twentieth century, Art Nouveau played the role of a generating element of this identity; first a class identity, of an emergent bourgeoisie which showed off its fast-earned wealth. Later on, Art Nouveau acted as a generating element of a territorial and national identity. Women, not wanting to remain on the sidelines, also adopted this new architectonic language, in which to dress their factories and their homes. They also opted for Art Nouveau culture If we follow the trail of women who commissioned projects to Art Nouveau Architects, we must talk about the house at Passeig de Gràcia , number 92, which has become one of the most innovative and, at the same time, emblematic buildings in Art Nouveau Barcelona. I am referring, of course, to the Casa Milà , affectionately known as the ‘Pedrera’(the “stone quarry”) 3. The owner of this building was Roser Segimon Artells, who was born in the City of Reus , just like Gaudí, the Architect who she chose to build her house. Roser Segimon Artells inherited an enormous fortune from her first husband, Josep Guardiola, a businessman who had become rich in the Americas in real estate and in import and export and who, in addition, had been a shareholder in the Panama Canal. On becoming a widow, Roser Segmon remarried and this time the lucky gentleman was Pere Milà Owing to Catalan civil rights, women didn’t share their wealth with their husbands; rather they continued to exercise control over their savings, which they were free to invest where they pleased. This is what happened at the Pedrera - as it came to be affectionately known in the period, and sometimes unaffectionately – isn’t the Casa Milà at all, rather the Casa Segimon , despite this name having almost completely disappeared. Aside from Roser Segimon’s selection of the most innovative architecture of the time - the Pedrera is without doubt the most technologically, typologically and aesthetically innovative building of its time. This is not an isolated case: in 1908, another grand project was started; the construction of the Monumental bullring, still in operation today. On this occasion, the project was commissioned to Ignasi Mas Morell, another Architect whose work can be classified within the Modernisme style (some text missing?...) 3 But Senyora Brutau and Senyora Segimon were not exceptions. Without having made a rigorous analysis, I can risk guessing that of the Art Nouveau houses in the Eixample district of Barcelona, between thirty and forty percent were financed by women. We don’t have any record of female Architects at that time, but we do however have a record of female Technical Architects, one such being Leonor Ferrer, who, in addition to giving technical drawing classes was also the Office Manager of the Societat General de Telèfons (The General Telephone Company), a novelty at the time Just as important as the external appearance of the facades of Art Nouveau buildings was the interior decoration with textiles, which had to be in harmony with the structural elements: wall-hangings, curtains, towels, accessories and a long etcetera of decorative elements. The textile craft industries had been traditionally dominated by women; they knew the craft-working techniques, and at a time when industrialisation created a incision between craftwork and mass production, various initiatives promoted a new relationship between the fine arts and the craft trades. One of these was the creation of an Indústries Artístiques (Art Industries) section at the Institut de Cultura (The Institute of Culture) and the Biblioteca Popular de la Dona (Popular Women’s Library) 4 The Biblioteca Popular de la Dona was founded in 1909. This was the first public library for women in the whole of Europe and in the following twenty years, it grew in a similar way to other similar libraries that were later founded around Europe, such as the Fawcett Library . Such was the success of this library that a year later the library was converted into an Institute with the aim of offering professional training for women and eventually grew to form a centre promoting cultural excellence, with a strong presence, not only in Barcelona, but also throughout Catalonia, and with the formation of outposts in various places. The Institute was self-financing, partly from the fees of its students, but more importantly from donations. The management team had a great ability to raise private funds, especially from families with abundant economic resources, families from the landed classes, especially with connections to the textile industry.

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