Bearded faun

It forms, with the previous two and the following one, a set of satirical masks, whose creation is perhaps related to the preparatory process of the Monument to Iscle Soler, 1915-18, with which the masks, made of iron sheet, are undoubtedly linked, Laughter (or Comedy), ca. 1915, included in this catalogue, and The Tragedy, ca. 1915 (whose initial version - with a different head of hair and a different mouth, as can be deduced from the photographic comparison of both - we have identified to this day with the title The drama, ca. 1915, and is also represented on the right of the base of the monument to Soler, in the initial project note of the first, although the two seem to be one and the same work subject to the usual modifications in Gargallo's way of working).
As we indicated for The Laughter, ca. 1915, some Catalan critics and collectors were able to value, at that time, the exceptional plastic and expressive interest of all these very personal works in sheet metal, which were undoubtedly unusually novel and original, but also strange and somewhat suspicious, in artistic environments. of the time.