99 - HIGINIO BLAT (Valencia, 1893 – Pamplona, 1974).

HIGINIO BLAT (Valencia, 1893 – Pamplona, 1974). “Scene of Daily Life.” Oil on canvas. Signed in the lower left corner. Measurements: 33 x 41 cm; 46 x 54 cm (frame). After studying at the San Carlos Academy in Valencia, Higinio Blat spent time in Mallorca and Paris in the 1920s, which were then centers of learning and the artistic avant-garde. During the 1930s, he exhibited his work in Paris, London, and Rome and settled in Pau, France, until 1948, when he moved to Mexico City, where he also exhibited. In 1951, he moved to the city of Hermosillo, where he founded and directed the Academy of Painting and Drawing at the State University of Sonora. He also established a school where he passed on the influences of the Valencian and French masters, leaving a profound mark. He returned to Spain in 1959 and settled in Navarre, the homeland of his wife, the painter Karle Garmendia, where he would eventually pass away. From a young age, Higinio Blat was described as a painter-poet. Thus, his works reveal a sensitivity and personality all his own. An excellent landscape and seascape painter, with Valencia in his heart, he also cultivated portraiture and still lifes. His painting stands out for its richness of color ranges and nuances, as well as for his mastery of drawing and his original technique. Toward the end of his life, due to health problems, he had to give up painting from life, one of his passions. He participated in national and international exhibitions, such as the 1916 Exhibition of Valencian Artistic Youth, the 1920 Valencia Fine Arts Exhibition, the First Autumn Salon in Madrid that same year, the Círculo de Bellas Artes in Madrid in 1922, the Sala Parés in Barcelona in 1926, the Salon des Artistes Français in Paris in 1926, and the Casino Español in Mexico City in 1948, among others. Among other honors, he was named an Officer of the French Academy in 1934. His work can be found in private collections in California, Texas, Mexico, Spain, etc., and in public institutions in Valencia, Navarre, Madrid, Paris, London, Italy, the United States, Mexico, etc.