Lluís Graner

Lluís Graner i Arrufí, or Arrufat in Spanish (5 February 1863–7 May 1929) was a Catalan painter in the Realistic style, artistic director and theater entrepreneur from Barcelona, Spain. After achieving notable success in painting, he moved into lighting design for theatrical shows and developed the Catalan lyrical theater genre of "musical visions".

He was the owner of the sala Mercè, on Barcelona's Rambla, where he established the first stable season of cinematograph sessions and musical visions. In 1905 he won the competition for the lease of Barcelona's Teatro Principal, where he set up the company Espectacles-Audicions Graner. Under his artistic direction, notable pieces of Catalan lyric theater were premiered, such as La santa espina, by Enric Morera and Àngel Guimerà.

Biography He was born in Barcelona, and studied at the Escola de la Llotja from 1883, with Antoni Caba (color/composition) and Benet Mercadé (drawing). thumb leftDuring his final year at school, he received a grant to study in Madrid, where he copied and learned from the Old Masters at the Museo del Prado. After that, supported by a fellowship, he moved to Paris and became a member of the Academie des Beaux-Arts. Later, he returned to Barcelona, but continued to travel to cities throughout Europe, including Berlin, Munich and Düsseldorf.

Driven by the idea of offering a total art show where all the arts were involved, he founded in 1904 the sala Mercè on Barcelona's Rambla, whose design was commissioned to Antoni Gaudí, being the only scenic space designed by the modernist architect. The hall offered cinema sessions combined with the representation of musical visions. Caves were created in the basement, where visual attractions such as dioaramas, life-size statues or monumental nativity scenes were installed.

Due to the success of the sala Mercè during its first season, Graner embarked on the adventure of renting the Teatro Principal in Barcelona in 1905, where he set up his company Espectacles-Audicions Graner, which, despite the great success of his shows, set up a loss-making production model due to the painter's lack of business experience and forced him to survive economically by making portraits on commission.

In his later years, he left Spain, living successively in Havana, New York and several other places while travelling to Santiago, Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro.

With Adrià Gual as stage director of his theatrical companies, he revived the theory of the "popular song harmonized for the stage" that the playwright Gual had essayed in 1897 with Blancaflor and adapted it to present his own proposal of the "musical visions". This genre of Catalan lyric theater aimed to stage pieces from Catalan folklore (songs, legends and tales) as performances of short duration, symbolist aesthetics and great impact and visual suggestion. These "musical visions" were the main stage repertoire of the sala Mercè and their success made Lluís Graner rent the Teatro Principal of Barcelona when it was put out to auction in 1905 in order to accommodate more spectators for his shows.

The sala Mercè Photograph of Joan B. Lambert, first pianist of the Sala Mercè. The sala Mercè, the first theatrical space directed by Graner (as manager, owner and artistic director), was inaugurated in 1904. It was located on what is now the Rambla, near Plaça Catalunya, and Gaudí was commissioned to design the space and its decorations. It was a performance hall that aimed to combine various artistic languages, from the cinematograph to the dioramas and visual attractions located in the caves of the Mercè hall. Since its opening, the project counted on the collaboration of important figures related to the Catalan culture of the time: Antoni Gaudí, Adrià Gual, Salvador Alarma, Enric Morera, Josep Carner, Joan B. Lambert and many others were linked, at various times in its existence and to varying degrees of intensity. The project operated between 1904 and 1910, when Graner announced the transfer of the business.

The Espectacles-Audicions Graner The main theatrical company of Lluís Graner was the one installed in the Teatro Principal of Barcelona under the name of "Espectacles-Audicions Graner". Moreover, it offered subscriptions to extraordinary sessions of non-musical theater and concerts, and each theater session combined the stage performance with screenings of short films. The Teatro Principal of Barcelona during the time of the Espectacles-Audicions Graner (1905–1908). After three seasons and great successes such as El comte l'Arnau, La presó de Lleida, La santa espina or La reina vella, Lluís Graner left the artistic direction of the company to go to America and work again as a painter. Graner had declared bankruptcy due to his business at the Principal theater, which offered shows of a loss-making nature due to the painter's high investment to offer quality shows at low prices. This forced him to survive economically by making portraits on commission.

Awards and recognitions

1888 - Third medal at the Universal Exposition of Barcelona. 1889 - Third medal at the Universal Exposition of Paris. 1894 - Extraordinary prize of the Queen Regent at the General Exhibition of Fine Arts in Barcelona. 1895 and 1901 - Medals at the National Exhibitions. 1907 - Gold medal from the Barcelona City Council to the sala Mercè and the Espectacles-Audicions Graner as the best cinematographs and theaters in the city.

Selected paintings