Teresa García Falgás

Teresa García Falgás (Valencia 1886-1982)

Teresa García Falgás is one of the National Museum of Ceramic and Decorative Arts’ most important benefactors. She was brought up in a family of artists and while it is not documented whether she herself was an active practitioner of the fine arts, it is clear that she was highly appreciative of the work of her brother Luis (1881-1954), and of that of his son, Luis García Oliver (1907-1977), as well as that of her husband Pascual Capuz Mamano (1882-1959); and also her brother-in-law, the excellent sculptor José Capuz (1884-1964). Teresa posed for all of them and several portraits, the result of those sessions, give us a good account today of her physical appearance. Little else is known about her personal life. Teresa was born in Valencia, but she and her husband moved to Barcelona in the opening decade of the twentieth century. The childless couple dedicated their lives completely to art. Teresa visited Valencia in summer 1969, ten years after being widowed, following an invitation from Manuel González Martí, in gratitude for her donation. It may well have been this visit—which she greatly enjoyed, as we can gather from her letters—that spurred her to return to her hometown, where she died shortly before turning ninety-seven.

Teresa’s generosity and her interest in her family’s work encouraged her, on becoming widowed, to donate around three hundred works to the museum to be enjoyed by future generations. Most of these works are by Pascual Capuz; she made the first donation, a self-portrait by Capuz, the year her husband died. Teresa also donated various sculptures and drawings by José Capuz and two wonderful portraits by Luis García Oliver and José Segrelles Albert (1885-1969). Many of these works were hanging on the walls of the National Museum of Ceramics between 1966 and 1990, in two large rooms dedicated to the García and Capuz families. Other works, mostly drawings, were gathered in albums compiled by Manuel González Martí as part of the museum’s collection of graphic art. Apart from the drawings there are also photographs of Pascual and Teresa, standing as testament to the bond they shared.

For this exhibition five works donated by García Falgás have been selected. The only sculpture in the group is a plaster cast in which José Capuz captured his sister-in-law’s serene and youthful features: Portrait of Teresa García Falgás (inv. no. CE3/00578). When the cast was donated to the museum, the director, Manuel González Martí, promptly commissioned it to be produced in bronze. This was a customary practice at the time, because bonze was considered a noble metal which would endure in time, compared with plaster, a much more fragile material. This operation however was carried out without bearing in mind the information which might be lost in a later reproduction of the original without the involvement of the artist, thus replacing a masterpiece with a crude replica. The original was believed to have been lost but fortunately it has been recovered for this exhibition.

The painter José Segrelles Albert gave Portrait of Teresa García Falgás (inv. no. CE4/00024) to Teresa García Falgás and her husband Pascual Capuz as a wedding gift, as is documented in Manuel González Martí’s letters. The couple also had family ties with José Segrelles; Teresa’s brother, José García Falgás, married a sister of Segrelles (cfr. Barjau 1997). Here the donor is portrayed in an elegant, understated black garment which may well be her wedding outfit.

Pascual Capuz’s work in the opening decade of the twentieth century is full of svelte figures that afforded a glimpse of the hectic pace of life in modern cities. The debate between modernism and traditionalism instigated by the so-called Generation of ’98 was still raging; and so, the visual arts was rife with depictions, not entirely free from irony, of mantilla-wearing majas, bullfighters and religious figures. Understandably, Pascual Capuz was not above this ongoing debate; in the Juventud Artística Valenciana exhibition held in 1916 he presented a Nude Maja with Mantilla, which, judging by the title, might well be this Woman with White Mantilla, inv. no. CE4/00406.

Most of the works donated by Teresa García Falgás have a handwritten inscription in pencil on the back and the handwriting matches that in the letters signed by her. The inscriptions usually suggest a title or provide an explanation. This is the case of Motherhood (inv. no. CE4/00393), whose inscription on the reverse of the painting reads “the painter’s wife”, dispelling any possible doubt on the identity of the sitter. One ought to note the similarity between this and other paintings from the same series with some works by José Capuz, particularly Woman Nursing a Baby. The structure of this sculpture from the museum’s collection (inv. no. CE3/01481) is defined by the robust, geometric and athletic body.

The Painter’s Wife (inv. no. CE4/00424) is an oil-on-cardboard painting in which Capuz once again portrayed his wife with a sketchpad in which she appears to be drawing or painting, or perhaps she is writing a letter, or going over some accounts. The truth is that Capuz portrays her at a large desk in a studio, surrounded by the usual objects associated with these places: a plaster cast of a head on the table, a ceramic vase full of brushes, heavy curtains and a portrait in the background. However, rather than the portrait of an intellectual, the scene is more to the misogynist sensibility of the times: a young woman bent somewhat awkwardly over her task. Capuz’s painting technique is patent in this excellent composition dominated by stains of colour and unpainted areas arranged across the surface without any defining contours.

References

Agramunt Lacruz, Francisco (1999)Salto de línea Diccionario de artistas valencianos, Valencia, Albatros, 3 t.

Arazo, M. Ángeles; Rodríguez Martín, 1966, “Nuevas salas en el Museo Nacional de Cerámica González Martí”, Levante, Thursday 1 December, n.p.

Barjau, Santi (1997) “Lluís Garcia Falgàs, gravador i dissenyador gràfic entre l’art elitista i l’art massiu”, LOCVS AMŒNVS, 3, pp. 177-193

Martínez, Alejandro (2024)Salto de línea García Oliver (1924—1937) (exh. cat.), Madrid, Galería Martínez Avezuela. https://martinezavezuela.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/GARCIA_OLIVER_ENFRENTADAS_compressed.pdf (consulta 3/12/2024).

Pérez Rojas, Francisco Javier (com.) (1998), Tipos y paisajes (exh. cat.), Generalitat Valenciana.

María Isabel Justo Fernández