Deux femmes (Two Women)

Julio González is mainly known for his work as a sculptor. However, up until the end of the 1920s he devoted most of his energies to painting and drawing, and these techniques were also the basis of his three-dimensional works, particularly those known as “drawings in space”.
González’s pictorial work is normally divided into three recognised periods, the first of which covers the time up until the end of the First World War. At that time, the artist showed the influence of French Symbolism (the González family having settled in Paris in 1900) and the Neoclassical work of Puvis de Chavannes. The second and most widely known period of painting covers 1918 to 1928, approximately, and is associated with Catalan Noucentisme. It was during this period that González painted Deux femmes (Two Women), a picture containing the typical characteristics of the period: a marked drawing-based composition, a volumetric conception and a small format. The theme of Deux femmes recreates the quintessential motif of the paintings in which he followed d’Orsian propositions: woman as symbol of the values of Noucentiste Classicism. From 1928 onwards (the third period in González’s painting) the artist only returns to the discipline sporadically, concentrating mainly on sculpture.

Paloma Esteban Leal