Catalogue for the exhibition ‘Eveli Torent. Between Els Quatre Gats and Freemasonry’

Eveli Torent (Badalona, 1876 – Barcelona, 1940) was an artist with a unique personality and career. His early years were closely tied to the questioning spirit that stemmed from the extraordinary Modernisme movement. More self-taught than academic, his graphic work was intentionally focused on groups, in form and execution. A skilful illustrator, he left his mark on the drawing world.

As an entrepreneur not devoid of ambition, he moved to Paris in 1901 and soon became an avid regular at the city’s celebrated art salons. He moved in anti-establishment intellectual circles and with well-off Parisians, who were interested in his portrait and costumbrista work, which were his specialities.

In 1914, the artist went to New York to continue his creative work and joined the Freemasons. He returned in Barcelona in 1921 and began a new chapter of his life and career marked by teaching, a firm commitment to philanthropy and trips to Torre d’en Rovira, on Ibiza, which he turned into a unique, attractive museum of humanism. The Franco regime’s persecution of Freemasonry led to his imprisonment and death shortly after he was released.

Catalogue available in the museum shop.