The Columbus mall (Passeig de Colom)

Maurice Barraud

Barraud, Maurice

Ginebra, 1889 - Ginebra, 1954

The Columbus mall, c. 1925 (Passeig de Colom, Barcelona)

© Colección Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza

Signed lower right: "M. Barraud".
On stretcher: "Le Colisée".
Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection

Oil on canvas

60 x 81 cm

CTB.1988.24

Artwork history

  • Artist´s property, Geneva, 1932.

  • Rudolf Staechelin Collection.

  • Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection.

1932

XVIII Biennale Internazionale d'Arte, Venecia, n. 258. Como "Le Colisée". Propiedad del artista, Ginebra. 2000 Fr.

2013

Sisley, Kandinsky, Hopper. Col·lecció Carmen Thyssen, Sant Feliu de Guíxols, Espai Carmen Thyssen, p. 104, lám. p. 105.

2022 - 2023

Made in Paris: La generación de Matisse, Lagar y Foujita. Museu Carmen Thyssen Andorra. P. 22-23, 90 & 149.

  • -Sisley, Kandinsky, Hopper. Col.lecció Carmen Thyssen. Giró, Pilar (ed.). [Exhib. Cat.]. Sant Feliu de Guíxols, Espai Carmen Thyssen, 2013, p. 104, lám. p. 105 [Sheet by Pilar Giró].

  • -Made in Paris: La generación de Matisse, Lagar y Foujita. Museu Carmen Thyssen Andorra. [Exhib. Cat.], Ed. Fundació Museu Andorra (Museand),  Principado de Andorra, 2022, p. 23-23, 90 & 149 [Sheet by Pilar Giró]

Expert report

Maurice Barraud’s painting transmits a sensation of extreme simplicity and spontaneity. His treatment of the oil offers the impression of a certain similarity to watercolour because of the rapid execution of the brushstroke, which allows him to transmit great fluency when drawing with colour and gesture.

Barraud participated in the XVIII Biennale lnternazionale d’Arte in Venice in 1932 with this work, but curiously the identification label on the back of the painting has a different title: Le Colisée. An inscription on the frame situates the execution of the work in Mallorca. However, it is in fact a view of the Customs House on Paseo de Colón in Barcelona, and so the correct title would be Paseo de Colón.

In Paris, Barraud also painted a series of views of the Pont Neuf over the Seine. There is a certain parallelism in the treatment of these works in terms of the chromatic palette, the technical execution, the brushstroke and the composition.

Pilar Giró

Works related