Dancers

Any good artist who works on a commission makes himself familiar with the tastes of the client. Sert was well aware that his clients appreciated Spanish themes, which were traditionally favoured by the social elite of the day for whom he worked. Major industrialists and businessmen, the aristocracy, the Spanish royal family and leading politicians were among his clients. Sert’s paintings, with their distinctive subject matter, reminiscences of Goya, large formats and the “luxurious” finish that he achieved by covering the backgrounds of the panels with sheets of gold, silver or other precious metals, were extremely popular and successful among particular sectors of society and were seen as the perfect backdrop for elegant evening events and social gatherings.

After World War II a new social order came into being that openly questioned the aesthetic postulates championed by Sert in his work. The new middle-class imposed its tastes and the format of the small easel painting started to prevail, in contrast to what the artist imagined, given that Sert thought that modern taste would return to decorative mural painting for the embellishment of the new “temples” of modernity: theatres, stations and large buildings.