Marian Vayreda i Vila

Politically Vayreda is considered a typical case of an identity located in-between Carlism and emerging Spain's peripheral nationalisms.

• Name — Marian Vayreda i Vila • Birth Name — Marian Vayreda i Vila • Born — 1853 • Birthplace — Olot • Died — 1903 • Place of death — Olot • Known for — his novels • Occupation — Painter, writer • Political Party — Carlism, Catalanism

• Illustration — Cavaller de Vidrà estate Marian Francesc Bartomeu Vayreda i Vila was descendant to noble Catalan families. His paternal ancestors were related to the Alt Garrotxa town of Olot. During the legitimist siege in course of the First Carlist War the family house was set ablaze, which forced Marian's grandfather Francesc to move to Girona. It is there that his son and Marian's father, Francesc Vayreda i Busquets (1814–1870), fell in love with Maria Rosa Vila i Galí (1817–?). She was descendant to a far more prestigious local Vila Cavaller family, holding a number of estates and owning Cavaller de Vidrà, an iconic Catalan mansion. The couple married in 1840 and in 1844 they settled in the reconstructed family house in Olot. Francesc's maternal uncle was municipal military commander and Francesc possibly took part in activities against the local trabucaires. He inherited estates co-possessed with his relatives and is referred to as "propietario rentista". As the two families maintained good relations, Francesc temporarily administered Porqueres holdings of his junior Vila nephews and the Vila family periodically managed the Vayreda estates. Francesc and Maria Rosa had 6 children, three of them becoming recognized figures. Apart from Marian, Joaquím (1843–1894) made his name as a painter and Estanislau (1848–1901) as a botanic. As a child Marían spent much of his time at the Cavaller de Vidrà estate, later frequenting the Olot Padres Escolapios college; following bachillerato he intended to study law in Barcelona. The advent of Glorious Revolution of 1868 changed these plans and Marían settled for studying art in l'Escola de Dibuix d'Olot. Around 1870 he joined the Carlist conspiracy and at the outbreak of the Third Carlist War he entered the legitimist troops. His exact war record is not clear. Most sources agree he remained on the Catalan Front; some claim he formed part of General Staff of Francesc Savalls, not unlikely as his headquarters was in Cavaller de Vidrà. Other sources note that Vayreda took part in combat, especially in the battles of d’Argelaguer and Prats de Lluçanés, and was wounded in action. Shortly before defeat and disguised as a peasant he made it to France. • Illustration — homage to Joaquim Vayreda, 1912 After a brief period in Séte Vayreda studied painting in Paris, for 2 years frequenting the classes of Jean-Léon Gérôme. Following the amnesty he returned to Spain and went on with art studies in l'Escola de Belles Arts in Barcelona. In 1878 he settled back in Olot, co-founding El Arte Cristiano, a commercially successful workshop producing religious imagery. In 1883 Vayreda married a geronina, Pilar Aulet Soler (1871–1928). The couple remained in the multi-family house in Olot; in his mature years Vayreda was referred to as patricio, gran señor, a formal and serious man. Marian and Pilar had 7 children. The best known of them, Joaquím, was a Traditionalist writer, journalist and local councilor though he made his name mostly as an art critic; also other children were active in Traditionalism. His grandson tried his hand in painting. Montserrat Vayreda was granddaughter of his brother.

• Illustration — Carlist king Carlos VII Political preferences of Vayreda's father remain unclear, but his maternal ancestors were firmly conservative and Carlist for already three generations. Growing up in their Cavaller de Vidrà estate Marían was absorbing its Traditionalist rituals. Since 15 years of age he was already a regular subscriber of the Madrid-based La Esperanza, the neo-Catholic daily of an increasingly Carlist leaning; he also admitted juvenile fascination with earlier conservative political writings of Jaime Balmes. Vayreda's enthusiastic teenage access to legitimist troops during the Third Carlist War came naturally, though some scholars claim that when reconstructing his motives 30 years later, instead of religious or conservative threads he rather pointed to Carlist defense of the furs and its doctrina regionalista. Almost all authors dealing with his literary works underline that Marian was enormously affected by the wartime experience, though none of the sources consulted clarifies what the nature of that impact was in terms of his political outlook. Chaos and conflict in Carlist ranks, brutality of civil warfare and bitterness of defeat have certainly deprived Vayreda of his juvenile zeal. In the early 1880s Carlism in Catalonia, like elsewhere in the country, remained in crisis, its outposts initially inactive and later painfully reconstructed. Nothing is known about Vayreda's engagement in re-emerging party structures following his return from exile; until the late 1880s there is no information about him either joining official party ranks or taking part in Carlist-sponsored initiatives. He re-approached the local Olot Circulo Tradicionalista by the end of the decade and joined it formally in 1895. Moreover, he entered local executive bodies, the same year becoming member of the comarcal Junta Tradicionalista. According to his later ex-post declarations, the access did not result from attachment to Carlist dynastical claims; facilitated by traditionalist and religious outlook, it was intended primarily to reinforce the regionalist threads within the movement. • Illustration — Carlist standard According to his contemporary Olot politicians Vayreda aspired to local party leadership, but experience in its structures did not last long. His bid to format local Carlist political profile principally along regionalist lines failed. It was possibly thwarted by provincial authorities, as Vayreda lambasted them for ignoring regionalist fundaments of the Traditionalist program; moreover, he complained about political course incompatible with the spirit of the movement, smelling of "liberalism and authoritarianism". In 1896 he formally left Circulo Tradicionalista. During last years of his life Vayreda's links with Carlism were lukewarm. When publishing his short literary pieces he preferred not to co-operate with Carlist periodicals. His political relations boiled down to occasional co-operation during electoral campaigns; actually, Olot remained the most Carlist electoral district in Catalonia. Above all, he contributed to the cause in his Carlism-flavored works, inducing some to call him "prohom de la causa".

• Illustration — Unio Catalanista stamp Vayreda explained his juvenile access to Carlism as motivated principally by its defense of traditional regional establishments and by its regionalist spirit, though scholars note that those ex-post declarations might have been burdened by backward extrapolation of his mature views and by his mitigating intentions. It seems indisputable, however, that following the war his Carlism was getting watered down. Remaining within Traditionalist and Catholic framework, Vayreda's outlook was increasingly focused on regional identity and in the 1880s it was self-identified as "traditionalist regionalism". Though by no means natural, inevitable or typical, Vayreda's shift from orthodox Carlist ideario to particular emphasis on only one of its components – regional identity – is considered representative for a group of Traditionalist militants from different parts of Spain. In the post-war years it was possibly influenced by "ideologia de la muntanya" of Torras i Bages, but assumed particular dynamics in the late 1880s, during campaign against the new Civil Code. In Olot it brought together people of different leanings, jointly with Vayreda forming the local Centre Catalanista and issuing its periodical, El Olotense (later l’Oloti); Vayreda kept supporting the periodical throughout the 1890s. By the end of the decade he approached Unió Catalanista, though he is not known to have participated in its political endeavors. Vayreda's Catalan identity was heavily entrenched in conservative, Traditionalist, Catholic and anti-modern sense of regional self. It did not stretch to embrace any sense of ethnic or national community. This identity was expressed almost exclusively in cultural terms and nothing is known of his support for Catalan political ambitions, autonomy-centered or otherwise; he was also cautious to distance himself from Catalanism flavored by federal or republican ideas. His vision of Catalonia was that of a spiritual entity epitomized by muntanya, the vision coined by Balmes, rejuvenated by Torres i Bages and sang in poetry by Verdaguer. Vayreda's death was painfully acknowledged by Unió Catalanista, Lliga de Catalunya, Lliga Regional and Foment Catalanista. • Illustration — Catalan standard According to dedicated studies of Vayreda's political outlook he remained on intersection between Carlism and Catalanism; some authors agree by maintaining that in mature years he settled for a possibilist compromise between the two. Other scholars clam that he opted for "Catalunya clarament carlina", declare that his Catalanism was recycled Carlism, suggest that he left Carlism to join regionalism, identify him as conservative regionalist absorbed by Catalanism or simply as moderate Catalanist (unconscious Catalanist) with no mention of Carlism at all. Those unwilling to dwell whether his Catalanism was enveloped in Carlism or whether it was rather the latter embedded in regional self settled for his late auto-definition of "tradicionalista regionalista".

• Illustration — Paisaje de Olot Vayreda kept painting through all of his adult life, though some scholars claim that in the mid-1890s he was gradually turning towards literature, either due to lack of public recognition or following death of his brother. His first picture discussed in literature is dated 1876, the last one 1901; total number of his works is unclear and it probably amounts (including sketches and unfinished ones) to few hundred. Most of them are small and very small compositions bordering sketches, though his best known paintings are significant in size. His ultimate technique was oil on canvas; minor works could be also charcoal or oil on cardboard; the peculiarity of his method was preference for a studio instead of plein air; he composed paintings on basis of previous sketches and minor works. Vayreda is typically identified as a landscape painter or as a costumbrista, though his works fall into four major topic categories: landscapes, religion, history and customs, often combining some if not all of the above. Landscapes are deeply set in the hilly Alt Garrotxa ambience, presenting local rural countryside with meticulous and accurate description. Featuring sunlighted sorted fields and wooded mountains they avoid any sign of decay or derangement. Despite what is described as their realism, they deliver impression of perfect natural order; due to neat and clean landscape contemporaries compared them to Japanese drawings. Some value his landscapes higher than those of his brother Joaquím, others deem them inferior. In a number of paintings landscape is the setting for local rural scenes, always scrupulously implanted in local customs and never containing a tiny hint of discord. • Illustration — El combregar a muntanya (Viático) Religious and historical scenes are often presented in medieval architectural setting, usually also related to Alt Garrotxa; it is reproduced with competent attention to detail, though at times also with some creativity. Historical paintings, tending to be academic in style, often reveal a sophisticated factual context; they tend to focus on medieval history of Spain, however initially Vayreda painted works also related to the Third Carlist War. Religious works, usually designed for private use or for local sanctuaries, reveal references – at times bordering quotations – to Italian Quattrocento; contemporaries valued them for color and chiaroscuro refinement, today they are appreciated for composition and context. Vayreda is considered member of the Olot School. Far more than esthetic group emphasizing architectural patrimony, studying folklore or celebrating beauty of rural nature, the Olot painters shared the same holistic vision and messianic understanding of art, intended to regenerate the society. Some scholars claim it stemmed directly from Carlism and was its continuation by means of brush and paint. Others see it as an attempt of conservative re-Catalanisation. Most agree that its central theme, embodied in a number of symbolic representations, was traditionalist vision of the region, confronting threatening modernity by means of re-vindicating earth, religion and history. In terms of artistic heritage, Vayreda and l’Escola d’Olot are considered related to vigatanisme, the Barbizon school, the Nazarenes, the Pre-Raphaelites and other minor groups.

Marian Vayreda i Vila was recorded at birth as Marian Vayreda. The authorities additionally record the headings Mariano Vayreda Vila, Marià Vayreda, Maria Vayreda Vila, Marian Vayreda Vila and Marià Vayreda Vila. His recorded languages were Catalan and Spanish. Other recorded relations include Marià Oliveras i Vayreda.

Marian Vayreda i Vila is recorded with the occupation military personnel. Recorded as writer, painter and military personnel. Established in Library of Congress under n85222258. Established in FAST under 160987.