The Circus

Xavier Nogués (1873-1941) was one of the most prominent artists on the Catalan scene of the movement known as Noucentisme, which reached its peak in the twenties. A man with a restless and multifaceted spirit, he found in collaboration with Ricard Crespo (1873-1941) the way to project his creativity in a spectacular way and with a high degree of perfectionism in the production of fire-enamelled glass vessels.

Xavier Nogués was in charge of designing the scenes depicted, which he captured on paper, and Ricard Crespo was responsible for materialising them in enamel on glass, with the support of his wife Concepció Domènech (1892-1956).

An emblematic example of Nogués and Crespo's production is the vases with circus scenes, although few examples remain, including the one we have in our Collection from the collection of the industrialist Lluís Plandiura, which could be dated to around 1924.

The vase with circus scenes is accompanied by a plate with a simple but colourful border in blue, white and yellow, which also shows the circus. These colours, together with green, are the predominant ones in the motifs depicted. The main feature is a dancer balancing on the back of a horse. There is also a clown, suitably characterised, as well as the acrobats performing stunts.