Francesc d'A. Planas Doria

His first teacher in Sabadell was Joan Vila Cinca. He would later study at the Royal Academy of Beaux Art of San Fernando in Madrid, and at the School of Beaux Arts of Sant Jordi (Llotja) in Barcelona with the masters Josep Calbó and Antoni Caba. He completed his studies in Brussels.

During his early years, he combined the family business with painting. In 1921 he exhibited his work for the first time in the Serra Salon of Barcelona, and in 1926 he had his first personal exhibition in the Parés Salon in Barcelona. In 1931 he abandoned all his mercantile activity to dedicate himself exclusively to painting, until his death in 1955.

The Planas family had extensive properties in Les Corts, Barcelona (now the manor and terrains of the Barça Football Club), in Sant Martí de Provençals and Badalona. Planas Doria married Assumpció Viloca Puig, the daughter of a textile industrialist from Sabadell. His descendants are two daughters and five grandchildren. Of all of them, only his granddaughter, Glòria Rognoni, dedicates herself to the arts, as actress, playwright and stage director.

In 1921 he won two prizes at the competition “Barcelona seen by its artists.” In 1936 he was granted the Prize of Honor at the Autumn Salon in Madrid. In 1936 he was elected president of the Royal Artistic circle of Barcelona, and in 1942, vice-president of the Water-color Artists Association of Catalonia. After the civil war (1936–1939) he participated as a painter in the board of restoration of the church of El Pi in Barcelona. In 1946, the City Hall of Sabadell gave him the Silver Medal of the city.

Planas Doria described himself as an urban landscaper. Dedicating his entire work to figurative art, in 1926 he wrote: “I don’t believe myself authorized to judge the new art, but I must tell you in truth, clearly and definitely, that I do not like it, and if someday you see me painting it, think that I am no longer myself.”

In 2005 to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of his death, the critic Arnau Puig named his conference at the Royal Artistic Circle, “From Claudio Lorena and the theatrical landscape to the natural landscape of Planas Doria”.[2] The teachers of Planas Doria at the Llotja were set designers. His paintings breathe this influence in their perspective and light.

The journalist Plàcid García-Planas in a lecture in 2006 refers to Planas Doria in the journal La Vanguàrdia as “the painter of factories.” [3] According to him few Catalan artists – not to say none – have painted with such veracity fumes and steams and furnaces. And perhaps, which is even more interesting, in very few Catalan painters, art and industry are so well intermixed. .[4]

Between 1912 and 1931 Planas Doria did several paintings on themes of the town of Montcada i Reixac not far from Barcelona, including a painting of the Asland cement factory located in that municipality. Referring to this work Francesc Fontbona, of the Institute of Catalan Studies wrote, “Of a positively ugly theme he (Planas Doria) makes a brutally beautiful painting, which could be included in any anthology of the painting of his time.” [5]

Planas Doria is highly appreciated in the Basque Country precisely because of the Mediterranean light in which he sees those landscapes. The critic Ricard Mas writes, “(—) with loyal followers in Barcelona, Bilbao and Madrid, where he exposes country and urban landscapes from all over Spain, mainly of Catalonia and the Basque Country.” [6]

He exposed in London and Buenos Aires, and has had five posthumous exhibitions. His work has been auctioned regularly for many years. In May 2013 his painting “Plaça de Sant Joan de Solsona” was auctioned at the Ankara Antikacilik salon in Ankara (Turkey).

The Planas Doria Archive was created in 2005.[7] Its mission is to keep a record of all of the artist's work, as well as conserve his documents and memorabilia. A reference number is given to each painting, and also titles, measurements, technique, data, and pictorial support, and a photograph of it is kept. The Archive contains more than 1,300 references. The owners of the paintings of Planas Doria address the archive to check if their paintings have a reference number and, if necessary, to ask for one.

The Association was formally constituted in 2010.[8] Its mission is to preserve the memory of the artist and promote all kinds of initiatives that will permit a greater broadcasting of his work. The president of the Association is the painter's eldest grandson, Victor Obach.

• Official web of Planas Doria