El Ethnological museum from Dénia has recently entered into its artistic collections two new paintings painted by Domingo Llorens Cervera, better known as Pintor Llorens. It is a portrait of his wife, Antonia Vives, painted between 1860 and 1870, and a canvas of the Sang Santíssima, patron saint of Dénia, belonging to the Moltó Bielsa legacy.
The municipal archaeologist, Josep Antoni Gisbert, explained that this acquisition has been negotiated with the owner, María Rita Serrano Moltó, since September of 2012. It has now been when they have reached an acquisition-donation agreement whereby the owner receives 50% of the appraised value of the works as a prize for the donation of the legacy Moltó Bielsa to the museum.
Both pieces need a process of restoration that will be undertaken soon, although the canvas of the Santíssima Sang has already passed a first cleaning process carried out by restorer Pilar Melenchón.
With this acquisition the Dénia Ethnological Museum adds 10 works by the Dianan painter, and Gisbert studies the possibility of allocating in the future a room in some museum space to show these works that faithfully portray Denia in the second half of the nineteenth century.
The Painter Llorens: Domingo Llorens Cervera
Domingo Llorens Cervera was born in Denia in the year 1827. After being orphaned at the age of eight, his uncle, Brother Andrés Llorens, was placed under the tutelage. In Valencia he studied Fine Arts and became a disciple of Vicente López, the first chamber painter of Fernando VII and Queen Isabel II, with whom he moved to Madrid in 1844 to work in his workshop until the death of the master in 1850.
After marriage with Antonia Vives, she returns to Denia and begins her career as a portrait painter and painter of religious themes. Llorens is also the author of the films that illustrate the first edition of the History of the city of Denia Of Roc Chabàs. 8 May 1905 died at his home on Pare Pere Street, 70.
Most of his work is in private hands, although the City of Dénia managed to gather 53 paintings in the 1958 year to make a thematic exhibition in the disappeared Hotel Fornos within the commemorative events of the third centenary of the death of Fray Pedro Esteve.
