The Violinist Costa

A typical statuette by Manolo Hugué, who schematised the figure of the Catalan violinist Francesc Costa, born in Barcelona in 1891 and who died in the same city in 1959. Like many of the Catalan musicians of his time, Costa, trained in Brussels, gave concerts throughout Europe and America and enjoyed great popularity at al levels, especially in Catalonia.

Hugué’s work, basically made up of sculptures of a manageable size, in which bullfighters rubbed shoulders with Aphrodytes and Manolas* with bacchantes, was related to the most authentic Catalan Noucentisme#, and was unequal but sincere, at times making very valuable discoveries. It was always based on Classicism – a Classicism tempered by his wisdom of a small-town man who had achieved a solidly-assumed culture.

The date of this work is unknown, but its style enables us to place it in the sculptor’s mature period, when he had settled once again in Catalonia and had an opportunity to meet the violinist. In the absence of more conclusive data, I would estimate that this was a contemporary of the bust referred to above.