CERCLE 9

21 he also worked with landscapes and even religious themes, it was military scenes where the artist reached his highest valu- ations, thanks to his mastery of drawing and his extraordinary ability to capture detail and turn it into something magnificent, overflowing with sensitivity and beauty. In 1881 he travelled to Paris, where he established a relation- ship with Édouard Detaille (1848-1912), an academic-style French painter specialising in military themes, and his mas- ter during his stay in the French capital, where he also came into contact with and frequented Alphonse de Neuville (1835- 1885) and Meissonier (1815-1891). His kind, honest and gen- erous nature led to meetings with other artists of the period, with whom he created relationships of reciprocal admiration, as is the case of Ramón Casas —whom he met during his stay in Paris— Joaquim Vancells or Mariano Benlliure. His frequent exhibitions at Barcelona’s iconic Sala Parés gal- lery —who always supported him— had great success, both in terms of sales and criticism, although it was not until 1887 when he participated in the General Exhibition of Fine Arts in Madrid that the painter consolidated his position in the art market after three of his exhibited pieces were acquired by the Queen Regent, Maria Cristina of Austria. Within the exhibition that we are reviewing today, it is worth highlighting a large-format piece from the Army Museum in Toledo, Salida en batería , a piece considered by many experts to be Cusachs's career masterpiece. Other relevant pieces are the Toma del Fuerte del collado de Alpuente , originally from the Military History Museum in Valencia; the Batalla de Arlabán , owned by the Catalan National Art Museum, and the roman- tic-style painting Pensée Lointaine , at Barcelona's Museum of Modernisme. Forty-nine more sketches on varied themes com- plement the exhibition. Cusachs knew how to turn characters and anonymous figures into the protagonists of many of his field scenes, given that his entire work is a faithful, dramatic nostalgia-filled chronicle of what was happening in a convul- sive and agitated Spain, but always from a point of naturalness, simplicity and elegance. Far from grand gestures, his paintings showed a clear and generous vision of military life, focusing on detail and praising the importance of those who, out of humili- ty and resignation, formed the essence of military life: soldiers and their horses, never considering other measures than those that marked his great independence of judgement and his ever exquisite vision. As rigorous as he was meticulous, he struc- tured his canvases based on his notes and sketches, tidy and precise, full of details, all of which brings a value —not only artistic, but essentially historical— to the work of this great exponent of Catalan art. And he produced so many sketches that in 1886 he was commissioned to make a graphic compi- lation of military histories with them, a magnificent anthology accompanied by highly lyrical texts by Francisco Barado, which was published in 1888 with the title Military life in Spain . █ José Cusachs, 1891. Foto/Photo: A. y E. Fernández de Napoleon  La ilustración artística (p. 483). Biblioteca Central Militar (Madrid)