Antoni Guadi i Cornet.
Born in 1852 in Reus (Camp de Tarragona) and
son of a copper maker from Riudoms, from childhood Gaudí was an attentive
observer of nature and felt attracted to its forms, colours and geometry. In
1868, he decided to study architecture in Barcelona , in a college
dominated by neo-classical and romantic trends. Thus, his first architectural production
swung between a reinterpretation of historical canons with oriental influence
and the recovery of medievalevents. Despite his youth he received the
first assignments from the ecclesiastic world and the bourgeoisie, who would
always be his main clients. Among these, the Association of Devotees of
Saint Joseph stands out as they commissioned him with the Expiatory
Temple of the Sagrada Família (the cathedral of the modern Barcelona ). Of
equal importance was the industrialist Eusebi Güell, the best client and
essential patron, who entrusted him with the construction of a palace,
the church for an industrial colony, some pavilions for his summer residence
and a city-garden.
It appears that Gaudí achieved his greatest fame and renown in 1910, gaining the attention of some Americans who asked him to build a hotel in New York. An exhibition on Gaudí's work, promoted by Eusebi Güell, was held in the Grand Palais in Paris, from April to June of 1910, and some of the plans and photographs exhibited there were also taken a year later to the I Salón de Arquitectura (First Annual Architecture Show) in Madrid.
In 1911, he had Maltesefever, and stayed for a time in Puigcerda, where his condition worsened and, believing his time had come, he made out his will. To the day of his death, he worked exclusively on the Sagrada Família, and in 1925 moved his residence to the studio he had on the premises.
Old Gaudí and his death
In his old age, Gaudí was a man that was conformed with
little and dressed without much care; so much so that the day of his
accident nobody recognized him as he lay on the ground. On June 7, 1926, he
was run over by a tram at the intersection of Carrer de Bailén and the
Gran Vía, and the taxi drivers refused to take a poor vagabond to the
hospital(the municipal police fined them later for not assisting an injured
man). He did not seek out contact with journalistsand he avoided cameras, so
there are few photographs of the architect.
This change in attitude may have been caused by a series of events that took
place beginning in 1912. That year, hisniece, Rosa Egea, who lived with him in
Barcelona, died. In 1914, his faithful collaborator, Francesc Berenguer
Mestres,died, and for matters of professional fees, he was confronted with the
Milà family in litigation. In 1915, the continuity of the construction
of the Sagrada Familia was endangered by a serious economic crisis. En 1914,
construction of the Colonia Güell was definitively interrupted. Two
years later, his friend, Doctor Torras i Bages, Archbishop of Vic, died. In 1918,
his best friend and patron, Eusebi Güell, passed away. They were sad events
that affected him but did not limit his energy and desire to see his
greatest work, the Sagrada Família, come into being.
Gaudí died at the age of 74 (June 12, 1926), but if it hadn't been for the
tram he may have lived many more years, since his father had lived to the
age of 93, with all his vigor. Half of Barcelona dressed in black to give
final homage to a man that had become very popular, although few had ever
met him personally. His body was buried in the crypt of the edifice where
he had worked for the last 43 years of his life, the Sagrada Familia. After
his death in 1926, he and his work entered a period of ostracism until
the avant-gardist trends and the international movement recuperated his figure
while presenting him as an example of modernisation and renewal of 20th
century architecture.
Sent in by L Stephens. Wales.
