Manuel Martinez Hugué dit Manolo
Embracing Woman 1924
Scarf Ring (worn by Manolo)
Silver proof
H. 2.5 cm, D. 2.5 cm
Provenance:
- Barcelona, private collection
Bibliographie :
- 1974 BLANCH : Blanch, Montserrat, Manolo, Sculptures, Peintures, Dessins, Éditions Cercle d’Art, Paris, 1974, n°298, p.152 (épreuve du musée Thermalia, Caldes de Montbui).
- 1983 EXPOSITION : Manolo de Céret a Caldes de Montbui, Ajuntament de Caldes de Montbui, Ajuntament de Céret, Barcelone, Diputació de Barcelona, mai-juin 1983, p. 21, n°22, repr.
- 1990 EXPOISTION : Manolo Hugué, Barcelone, Museu d’Art Modern, 16 février – 15 avril 1990, p.152, n°109, repr. (Exemplaire du musée Thermalia, Caldes de Montbui)
- 1992 BLANCH : Blanch, Montserrat, Manolo Hugué, Gent Nostra, 1992, p.42, repr.
- 1995 EXPOSITION : Manolo Hugué (1872-1945), Mont-de-Marsan, musée Despiau-Wlérick, 28 juin-4 septembre 1995, Pontoise, musée Tavet-Delacour, 16 septembre-26 novembre 1995, n°56, p.66.
- 1997 EXPOSITION : Manolo Hugué, Escultura, Pintura y Dibujo, Madrid, Centro Cultural del Conde Duque, janvier – février 1997, p.72, repr.
- 2005 RAMON : Ramon, Artur ; Vallcorba, Jaume, Album Manolo Hugué, Barcelone, Quaderns Crema, 2005, p.154, repr. (Exemplaire du musée Thermalia, Caldes de Montbui).
Other known silver proofs
- Caldes de Montbuy, Thermalia museum, Mas Manolo collection
- Barcelona, catalogue of the national museum
Manuel Martinez Hugué, known as Manolo, was born in Barcelona in 1872 to a family of modest means. In 1900, he decided to leave his native country and move to Paris. On the advice of Francisco Durrio, known as Paco Durrio (1868-1940), a Basque sculptor and silversmith who lived and worked in Paris, Manolo went to work for the Parisian jewelry manufacturer Arnould et Vin. In a 1919 letter addressed to Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler (1884-1974), he says, “At that time, I often went to the Louvre, where I transformed everything I saw into pendants and belt buckles that I worked up in plaster, and when they were finished, I walked them around Paris, taking them to all sorts of shops, often ones completely unrelated to what I was doing.”
At first, Manolo designed the pieces, and silversmiths executed them, but later he decided to create the jewelry himself, making more personal pieces using the sculptural techniques that he’d learned during his training and based on models he made either in plaster or clay. Manolo’s earliest jewelry, in a symbolic and decorative style, took the forms of willowy insects, graceful birds, and sensual feminine faces and bodies, all typical subjects of Art Nouveau jewelry.
From 1910 on, Manolo worked less in jewelry, returning to the practice later, in the 1930s. However, he made this scarf ring in 1924 for his own use. Around the same time, he made a ring for his wife, Totote, using a similar composition.[1]He was living at the time in Céret in an environment ripe for creation. The style of these pieces of jewelry is different from that of his Parisian period; they seem to be an extension of his sculpted work, with similar themes and compositions. The small format required by jewelry allowed him to freely experiment with his interests in contorted poses and tight framing. In this piece, the feminine face is show in a three-quarter profile turned toward her left shoulder. Her arms are raised around her face, which is kissing the empty space within the ring, and her right hand is placed flat on her forehead. Manolo used a similar composition in a stone sculpture in 1923.[2] In addition, the Catalonian museum in Barcelona has another scarf ring with a similar composition, though its lines are more precise and assertive, giving it a very different feel.
Our scarf ring is that one that Manolo wore; it is visible in a number of portraits of the artist (see the photograph from 1935 reproduced in. Ramon, Artur, Album Manolo Hugué, Barcelone, Quaderns Crema, 2005, p.310).
Between 1912 and 1933, Manolo was under contract to the dealer Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler; according to their agreement, everything that Manolo produced went to Kahnweiler in exchange for a monthly stipend. This silver ring was created within that professional context, though from what we know at this point, it’s impossible to say whether or not it is from an edition commissioned by Kahnweiler.
[1] 1974 BLANCH, #283: Ring for Totote, 1924-1926, gold, H. 1.8 cm, Mas Manolo, Caldes de Montbuy, 2005, p. 310.
[2] 1974 BLANCH, #99: Female Bust, 1923, stone, H. 14 cm, Galerie Louise Leiris, Paris, p. 68 repr.