Untitled Document

"I have never seen him bad-tempered or scornful of anyone! I can find no fault with him, and his qualities were full of harmony, there was nothing extravagant about him, he was really well-balanced." Thus spoke the Colombian painter, Emma Reyes of her lifelong friend Alejo Vidal-Quadras. "He was always superb both physically and morally. Being close to the ruling classes - the international who's who - never interfered with his perfect simplicity, that of a genuine gentleman who in the course of his life sought to develop his talent, never to harm anyone. This has made several say: "He was a nobleman". Alejo Vidal-Quadras was born on the 12th April 1919 in an upper middle-class family in Barcelona. The origins of the family fortune went back to his ancestors who made their fortune in Venezuela before the independence of this country, between 1820 and 1830, then in Cuba. Manuel Vidal-Quadras had founded a private bank in Barcelona, the "Banca Vidal-Quadras". It was one of the first Spanish family banks run by the four Vidal-Quadras brothers for some period, it disappeared around 1915. The four brothers each inherited a lordly house near Barcelona, where they settled down with their families. These houses were situated outside the town, in the villages of Sarria and San Gervasio they lived a semi-rustic life, going about in horse-drawn carriages. At this time people vied with elegance during trips on the Paseo de Gracia, the large avenue in Barcelona, inspired by the Champs-Elysées.

Alejo in 1923

Alejo Vidal-Quadras, the artist's grandfather, and his eldest brother Carlos decided to send their eldest children to study at the “Stella matutina” college, run by Jesuits, one of the most famous in Europe, in Feldkirch, in Austria. The boys returned with an excellent education and perfectly fluent in German.

Javier, the artist's father was among these heirs. Alejo and his brother Javier, his elder by eleven months, lived in their grandparents, Alejo and Elvira Vidal-Quadras' spacious mansion, in Sarriá. A great wall encircled the estate which overhung the country-side, and protected a park, a tennis court, pools and ponds, the main house, and also the children's favorite: the "casita de las cabras", a small log cabin. The stable now no longer contained carriages but had become a garage for an Essex 1920, and the two motor-bikes belonging to Alejo's youngest uncle, Quito.

However, financial difficulties were soon ahead, compelling three of Alejo's uncles to work. The eldest of the aunts entered a convent, belonging to the order of the Sacred Heart. Elvira, the grandmother ran the house whilst Alejo, the grandfather went over the domain and made himself busy killing time.

In the years 1934-35, the house became too expensive to run and too big: so it was sold. The grandparents moved to a flat, the height of which ma de the grandfather feel dizzy (yet it was only on the second floor). Later, during the civil war, they were expelled and the grand lordly mansion became the property of a religious congregation, after having been transformed into a school. Part of the park was sold and houses built on it. Lastly, the building of a motor-way encroached on the domain leaving just the house surrounded by a very small garden. In memory of the era, the adjacent road to the house was christened "calle de Vidal-Quadras".

The eventful history of this mansion with its ups and downs reflects that of the family destiny, Javier and Alejo were strictly educated. When they reached the age of four and five, a young Austrian girl was engaged to replace the Spanish nurse.

"Fraülein", Louise Kaiser, was a severe guardian who taught the children excellent manners.

When Alejo reached the age of five, his parents undertook to travel, taking the two boys and "Fraülein" with them. Thus they spent some time in Gosenßass in the Tyrol (Italian at this time) then in Possilipo on the Italian coast, north of Naples, and lastly on the Riviera. Fascinated by this region, the parents decided to settle there with their children.

Alejo Vidal-Quadras always felt at ease everywhere and adapted himself to all situations, considering himself a real "citizen of the world". In the autobiographical notes that he left, he evokes the "untiring travelers" who were the Vidal-Quadras family, speaking "at least three languages".

Life in Cannes was happy, with the beach in the summer they instinctively learnt how to swim, played with their friends, went shopping on the Croisette... They also often saw English or American children. In the morning they went to school, in the afternoon, teachers gave them private lessons at home to perfect their education.

Their parents entertained many guests: French and White Russians. Besides friends, the family added to this whirlpool: uncle Luis, aunt Sylvia... Pilar their mother, an experienced hostess, evolved easily and gracefully among her guests.

One day however the beautiful carefree life stopped. The children were sent to boarding school at Saint Stanislas college. They could feel that great changes were about to come in their family: one day their mother came to see them alone in college. They will only see their father again many years later. In his autobiography, Alejo mentions the event, the divorce of his parents, as the fracture, it marked the end of a period of peaceful happiness.

The two boys helped their mother who had to face up to this difficult situation. They decided to return to Spain, the villa was emptied, the furniture sold by auction. For some time they lodged at a hotel. Their mother confirmed they would live without their father, and would continue to go to school in Barcelona. They also learned that their father's liberality had helped in dissipating their mother's inheritance, she came from a rich family in Santander, the Veiga de la Cuesta. The two boys however did not run their father down, a charming, handsome, and cultivated, rather extravagant man, but they did become closer to their mother, who was beautiful, noble and strong. The divorce took place in France, since it was refuted in Spain. It was one of the first divorces to be known in Barcelona, and very badly accepted in the Vidal-Quadras family.

In 1931, the two brothers entered the Bonanova college, managed by the brothers of Saint Jean de La Salle. The beginning at school was not without difficulties, since the two boys had followed elementary schooling in French, a language which for the moment they spoke better than Spanish. However, quite quickly, they reached a good level and their seven years at the school went off quite well. Alejo obtained brilliant results, be was always at the top and finally passed the baccalaureat suma cum laude, the best results possible. Alejo was soon used to his new life in Barcelona, which made him say later: "The Barcelona of my childhood appeared as a happy town, full of optimism, open to progress".

During his school years, Alejo began to be known for his artistic talents. During lessons he could not resist the temptation of sketching his teachers. They were not duped; they let the pupil finish, then confiscated what he was doing. Alejo would give up his drawing. Sometimes the teacher tried to find fault with him and asked him to repeat the lesson, but the young man replied without hesitating, thus proving, if it were necessary, his vivacity and aptitude for listening attentively with one ear, whilst giving attention to his drawing. The teachers of course did not tear his drawings up, they were exhibited in the staff roam and the pertinence of the caricature commented on.

One day, the two boys were invited by the housemaster to the parlour where they were surprised to discover a couple at the top of the stairs: it was their father who had returned from the United States, accompanied by his new wife, Liby. He took them to a restaurant. Alejo was embarrassed especially as his father spoke English to Liby, a language in which he was not fluent. Javier questioned them about their studies, their life; he asked news of their mother who was taking a cruise, this year, on the "Marques de Comillas". Their father promised to come back from time to time to see them, but didn't keep his promise.

On the advice of the family, and encouraged by their mother, herself a talented amateur painter, the boys entered the painting Academy opened in Barcelona by their great uncle Jose Maria Vidal-Quadras, of excellent reputation. Up to the civil war, which put an end to his sumptuous spending, he was the favorite painter of grand Catalonian families. The two adolescents followed lessons assiduously at the Academy, three times a week. Quite soon, Alejo stood out, whilst recognized artists, who had often exhibited, came to the studio. His spectacular progress was the mark of a real painter and the family started commissioning portraits from him.

He remembers: "From childhood, I was steeped in an artistic milieu. I heard speak of Pablo Casals, Jose Maria Sert, Gaudi, reputed creators, and of the portraits by Philippe de Lazlo and Sargent. In the happy 20s, Catalonian artists found generous sponsors; poets, musicians, sculptors, painters and architects were encouraged by a rich, rather eccentric, upper middle class. The Güell family represented this class well: the family patriarch, Eusebio Güell was Gaudi's sponsor and best customer. I may say he was mine too in my early days. Besides the Güells were close friends". "My first trial gallop in painting took place in my uncle Jose Maria Vidal-Quadras' studio. From the age of twelve I had drawn and painted from models there. My uncle also taught me how to use pastels and charcoal. I already had a small "collection" of my works since one of the cousins of my father, Felipe Bertran Güell, had commissioned me to do a series of portraits in ink or pencil to illustrate a book on contemporary history. Then he sent me the book with a note apropos to my portraits: "this is the key to your future". I have never forgotten this encouragement and recognition".

Fernando Riviere, the husband of my aunt Téa, a well-off manufacturer who had begun to collect paintings was one of the first in the family to take Alejo seriously: he commissioned charcoal portraits of his wife and himself. He also placed an order for ink etchings, lightly coloured in pastel, inspired by the pictures of Veronèse. He had a screen and cupboard doors decorated with these. Other orders flowed in. Alejo at this period called himself "an amateur portraitist".

Certain well-known painters took offense at Alejo's talent: one day he showed a few pictures to a famous painter, Togores, wanting his opinion and advice, Togores just felt the paper between his finger and thumb, and whispered in Catalonian "bon pape" ("good paper")...

Once again Alejo Vidal-Quadras' path was cut off by outside events. The Civil War broke out whilst they were on their summer holiday in Ibiza. In a short time everything went haywire. It was some time before they could leave the island and return to Barcelona.

Then there began a long period of restrictions. In Barcelona families were emigrating en masse: people from the business class whose social position or simply their name put them in danger. Because Catalonia soon declared its independence and provided itself with a government (la Generalitat) where socialists, communists and Trotskists were opposed to liberal Catalonians, whilst Franco's nationalist army was leading a ruthless war. Part of the refugees fled to the border then returned and settled in other towns such as San Sebastian, Pampeluna, Sevilla and Palma de Majorca in the nationalist zone.

At the beginning of events, the family lodged at the Hotel Méditerranée in Palma. It was there, one day that Javier Vidal-Quadras, accompanied by his wife Liby, arrived. He greeted several acquaintances, then turned, kissed his sons, kissed Pilar's hand and enquired about their health: the two adolescents had seen their father for the last time. Two years later they learned of his death in a car accident in Spain during the Civil War, at the age of forty eight. Whilst waiting to be able to return to Barcelona, Pilar rented a villa with a superb view over the bay of Palma. Alejo went there as often as possible, he didn’t particularly feel a soldier at heart, although serving in the ground forces of the nationalist air force of the island. On the contrary, he devoted himself to his favorite pastimes: drawing and caricatures in the shape of sketches. He also painted several portraits, commissioned by his friends. He was just eighteen years old and his reputation as a portraitist was taking shape.

In May 1939, the Civil War being over, families who had temporarily settled in Majorca could return to their homes in Barcelona. In Barcelona everything had to be started again. Everything had been plundered, devastated. Pilar went all over the town trying to find her furniture, accompanied by a witness who was to testify to the reality of her claims. The Second World War was already being prepared in Europe.

Up until the end of his secondary school studies, Alejo thought he would study architecture. Alas, the war having lasted so long, all their studies had to be shortened. Facilities being given to study law, to those holding a baccalaureat, the two boys decided to do this.

Alejo studied at the University of Barcelona but also at the Fine Arts School. Paid orders came to him from the Güell family. “My first serious commissions for portraits came from the Marquis de Comillas (Juan Antonio Güell) and his two brothers, the viscount and the baron Güell. Besides this, the marquis had arranged for me to stay a few months, as a pupil, in the studio of Philippe de Lazlo, portraitist of the royal family and famous people of the time; unfortunately the maestro died and this marvellous project never saw the day. However, I drew the portraits of the Güell children, the nieces and nephews, and other intimate friends, as well as those of members of my family, this allowed me to organize my first exhibition in 1941 in a gallery in Barcelona”.

But, life became really difficult, Pilar Veiga saw her family capital invested in South America blocked. To recuperate it there was only one solution left, to go there. After a few months they were able to envisage departure and embarked on the Monte Albertia which belonged to the Aznar family, ship-owners in Bilbao and Barcelona, who were friends of theirs. They then had the privilege of lodging in the owner's very comfortable cabin, full of books. The voyage was interminable, the Allies compelled the boat to go through Trinidad so as to search it from top to bottom. They spent ten long days anchored off Port of Spain. At the end of a fifty three days' crossing, at last they arrived in Argentina. The coast was infested with German submarines, but where they found the pre-war spirit of Europe.

Buenos-Aires seemed a place of release to them, where life was easy. They settled in a hotel for a few months and led a happy carefree life. Then they went to Chili to recuperate the family investments in the banks of Santiago. They were fascinated by the town, which at that time had eight hundred thousand inhabitants; The Chilian middle class was cultivated, cosmopolitan, and welcoming. Here they even found friends they had known in France.

The two young men became the darlings of this microcosm. Alejo, was quickly snowed under with commissions for portraits. He began the sittings in the small salon of the suite they had rented at the hotel Carrera. The commissions continued. Alejo was now earning a very good living from painting. He exhibited a lot.

In 1944 Pilar and Alejo rejoined the elder brother Javier in Argentina where he had gone to work, earlier, in Buenos Aires. They received the same warm welcome they had received in Chili. The young painter quickly became well-known and had lots of portraits commissioned. He often met artists from all over the world, with whom he liked to talk and work. He described this period of his life as a rich and happy moment: "I took lessons at the Vincente Puig (a painter of Catalonian origin) School of Fine Arts and met young artists there who later became famous: Miguel Ocampo, Sara Gillo, José Antonio Fernandez-Muro, Grau, the Ecuadorian Eduardo Sola... I also knew a brilliant group of Chilians, amongst whom Matta's brother (older and already famous) as well as artists from Monte Alegre; one of them later married Leonard Bernstein the conductor and composer”. But Alejo found his training incomplete and wanted to continue it: "At the end of some time, for myself and my friends, life in Buenos-Aires seemed limited. It was certainly a pleasant environment but finally not sufficiently stimulating. We began dreaming of New York or Paris, towns where new events were happening unceasingly, in art as well as in life".

Alejo decided on Paris. This was a courageous decision as he imagined times would be hard and money short. But he wanted to take the risk, he said: "Every artist should go to Paris. It has been the capital of art for several generations".

In September 1947, he was ready to embark once again. But finally he did not make the voyage alone. Indeed, on the quay, he met a sculptor friend who introduced him to Emma Reyes, a young Columbian painter, who had obtained a scholarship to study painting in France. It was the beginning of an indestructible friendship between Alejo and Emma, which resisted both time and distance.

Doubtless, Alejo was relieved not to be completely alone for this long tour and especially to be able to grapple with this new adventure in the company of a painter with whom he would be able to share his preoccupations. Whilst he was leaning over the rails with Emma Reyes watching the cranes loading the boat, he saw an easel swinging to and fro which greatly amused him: "Why take an easel to France, as if there aren't any there!" Emma was careful not to tell him that the easel was hers, and had recently been given to her as a present by friends. Of course, on arrival, Alejo burst out laughing when he understood who the owner was. Later on he inherited the easel and worked with it until the end of his life. He painted his first works on it in France and his last portrait. Emma gave it to him one day when he returned from the United States. Later she said: "I am so happy that Alejo, my friend, made his career on it".

The voyage to France was long. Emma caught cold. One day at a stop in Dakar, they decided to leave the boat and go drawing. They were dazzled by the brilliant colours of a market where they stopped with their sketch books and sketched all day. They were so happy to have been able to fix their visual emotions on paper, they caught the boat just in time.

In Paris, Alejo lodged at the home of friends, his room was too small for painting. Emma managed to borrow a studio and invited her friend to share it with her in the daytime: "We worked non-stop. How we worked!", Emma remembers. Their styles were very different but each recognized the talent of the other. A few months later a third painter, Miguel Ocampo joined them, Alejo had met him in Chili, then a fourth one, Edouardo Sola-Franco came too. The atmosphere in the studio was warm and friendly, and this artistic environment helped Alejo to blossom. "When Alejo had a portrait to paint, says Emma, we cleaned the studio, he took my easel, it looked more serious, and then we others disappeared". From 1948 Alejo returned regularly to Barcelona, to meet his friends and other artists, Clavé, Tapiès...

Tilda Tamar, a young actress from Argentina that he had known in Buenos Aires, and whose career was made in Hollywood, joined him in Paris in 1948 and he married her there, in 1950.

Little by little Alejo Vidal-Quadras' reputation was recognized, and without having made the choice, he became known as a portraitist. "On landing in Le Havre, in 1947, I promised myself that I would be ready and mature in my work by the age of thirty. I had two years left. The challenge was real and difficult. I still had a lot to learn, I knew Europe so little, its museums and historical cities. To visit the museums freely was a great premiere for me, since the age of six I had known only instability and war. What a joy it was for me, after having traveled thousands of kilometres, to stop in an Italian art centre. Without any established plan, I discovered all the artistic treasures of Europe and soaked them up. Besides, some of the portraits painted in 1947 reflect the influence of the Italian Cinquecento. It was a bolt from the blue! It was at this time that I understood that I possessed a great variety of inclinations. And was capable of doing good imitations. I had doubtlessly inherited this from my mother, who all her life, reproduced, with talent, the works of the great. I tried all kinds of techniques, in all directions, enjoying drawing in Paris, sketching in Venice, catching the likeness of picturesque small market towns in Spain, divided between contemporary tendancies, but at the same time, faithful to my admiration for the great masters of the past. My first exhibition in Paris in 1949 at the André Weil Gallery, reflected the variety of my painting. This diversity of expression was very well accepted, in general, by the critics." Let's quote this one for example: "Here is an artist who is not imprisoned in a unique formula. Inclined towards expressionism by the violence with which he surrounds shape, often naïve in the graphism of some drawings (The little railway, for example) and sometimes Italianising when painting portraits". Or this other one: "A classical base and an independent talent, so characteristic of this artist, he tends to give his works an absolutely malleable character".

At this time, the great of this world all seemed to be looking for a new style in portraits. His reputation as a portraitist was confirmed in the 50s and 60s. This was probably due to the request of the Countess of Paris in 1955: she commissioned the portrait of each of her eleven children. This was the detonator of his international career.

Official commissions poured in: from the Imperial court of Iran, the royal families of Spain, Italy, Greece, Austria, Jordan, Yugoslavia, the princely families of Luxemburg, Monaco... Alejo Vidal-Quadras was capable of imposing himself with his new, more intimist, purer style. He painted the person in his/her originality, with no decors: only the human being interested him. His model's titles never impressed him, he would make the person speak so as to seize what was unique and special about him/her.

Alejo painted non-stop, commissions were more and more numerous, and his contracts with prestigious galleries: Wally Findlay in New York, Paris and Palm-Beach, and John Partridge in London allowed him to exhibit his work regularly.

Of their couple, his niece Monica, daughter of his brother Javier, and wife of Xavier de Meaux, says: "From Chacha, a nickname given to Marie-Charlotte by Pierre Celeyron, an organizer of international events, and Alejo there emanated serenity. They were a very united couple. I have rarely seen such complicity, such love. They shared everything: a taste for the arts, friends, nature and animals, a kind of ideal, the sense of beauty especially, being the pivot of their life. Both of them were naturally handsome, they radiated together. For the young girl I was then, it was an extraordinary example. Chacha a very intelligent woman, very sensitive, always ready to do anything for her husband. I have rarely seen a woman adore her husband so much. She called him "cherizinhno”, said their niece Monica Vidal-Quadras who was to them the child they never had.

Marie-Charlotte when she closed his eyes said: "God cannot allow us to have loved each other so much and then not reunite us one day".

It may be said that from adolescence till his last days when he painted his last portraits, those of Pierre-Emmanuel de Leusse and of Jean d'Oncieu Chaffardon, the artist never stopped painting, was never surpassed.