Laureano Barrau (1863 – 1957) was a
Spanish impressionist painter. He began his studies in Barcelona,
his native city and afterwards in Madrid where he studied the old
Spanish Masters. at the age of 20 he went to Paris and entered the
Académie des Beaux-Arts where he had the painter Gerome as tutor.
Two years later he won the Prix de Rome in Barcelona which afforded
him the opportunity to study the great Italian Masters for three
years. When he was 28 the Salon de la Nationales des Beaux-Arts de
Paris gave him the title of Societaire. He earned medals in the
principal cities in Europe and today his paintings hang in museums
in Spain, Paris, Brussels, Buenos Aires, Montevideo and Rio de
Janero.
When Laureano was 47 he came to the
island of Ibiza. Enraptured by the charm and beauty of the island he
resolved to make it his home. He settled with his wife in the town
of Santa Eulalia del Rio where he painted what is considered his
best work full of light and colour. He remained in Santa Eulalia for
the rest of his life. He died in 1957 at the age of 94 and is buried
in the cemetery in Santa Eulalia.
In 1963, a museum which houses some
200 of Barrau's paintings was inaugurated by his wife on Puig da
Missa in Santa Eulalia beside the 400 year old church. She then gave
the museum to the village. To this day there is some dispute as to
whether the museum belongs to the town or the church.
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