Josep Lluís Pellicer Fenyé

(Barcelona, 1842 − 1901)

Cartel Oficial de la Exposición Universal

1888

lithograph on paper

260 x 110 cm

Inv. no. 556336

BBVA Collection Spain


World Fairs or Universal Expositions  started in the mid-nineteenth century as an expansion of the industry fairs held in the previous century. They had a significant cultural and political impact, and organising them lent the host city international prestige. The first world exposition took place in 1851 in London, and 1855 saw the union, for the first time, of Industry and Fine Arts in Paris.

The exposition held in Barcelona in 1888, for which this poster was designed, was the first  organised in Spain. Barcelona was the perfect location given its extraordinary industrial development, also testified to by the industry exhibitions held between 1822 and 1827. One of the main goals of the show was to portray a different view of Spain, free from the clichés in circulation throughout Europe since the Romantic period. The exposition was the initiative of a businessman, Eugenio Serrano de Casanova, but the difficulties in bringing it to completion and its subsequent development—the exposition had initially been planned for 1887—resulted in the project being eventually taken over by the City Council of Barcelona and its then mayor, Francisco Rius i Taulet, who was appointed President of Honour of the Universal Exposition.

Josep Lluís Pellicer was in charge of its organisation and also designed the official poster. As an artist and intellectual, Pellicer enjoyed considerable prestige in those years. His interest in national expositions led him to visit the Paris Exposition in 1867, where he made drawings and notes which were later published in instalments in the La Vanguardia daily newspaper.

The work at hand is a lithograph poster, printed in four parts due to its large size.

The ensemble is dominated by an imposing neo-Medieval style tower with three coats of arms in the centre: the Spanish one on top and the city of Barcelona’s below it on either side. On top of the façade is a sculpture of the goddess Victoria holding laurel wreaths in both hands; the words “Gloria” and “Honor” flank her figure beside her feet. The year, months and location of the exposition are written in a series of cartouches in the upper section. On either side of the tower are two standards with banners in the colours of Barcelona’s coat of arms. Each standard also has three medallions with the names of the exposition’s most relevant sections: on the right, mining, commerce and agriculture; on the left, navigation, education and industry.

At the centre, on the lower part, we see the statue of a worker on a pedestal bearing an inscription of Virgil’s motto “Labor prima virtus” [work is the chief virtue]. The two female figures on either side are allegorical representations of Industry (left) and the Fine Arts (right), the two main focuses of world expositions. The very bottom section of the poster announces some of the events programmed for the Universal Exposition, including lectures, popular festivals and plays.

As a whole, the poster pays tribute to the city of Barcelona, a pioneer in Spain in hosting a Universal Exposition, which had a profound impact on the society of its time.

Its former delicate state of conservation called for its recent restoration. The intervention consisted of cleansing the support, eliminating damp stains, applying a fungicide treatment, and eliminating the remains of adhesive on the back. In addition, the support was repaired and the colour reintegrated. The work was reinforced and laminated with Japan paper, and finally mounted on a stretcher to be framed and displayed.