Original drawings by Valentí Castanys for the newspaper La Veu de Catalunya, 1933-1936.
Data de publicació del document: 02/02/2024
Any del document original: 1933
The Historical Archive of the City makes protagonists of the month to the original drawings of Valentí Castanys that entered the AHCB in 1936 by donation of the newspaper La Veu de Catalunya. The drawings have been described and treated during 2023 for their correct conservation, being available for consultation through the catalog. This year is the 125th anniversary of the appearance of the newspaper in the city.
La Veu de Catalunya was published in Barcelona, in the Catalan language, between the years 1899 and 1937. Specifically, 451 original drawings by the cartoonist and journalist Valentí Castanys (Barcelona, 1898-1965), created for the newspaper from November 1, 1933, until he stopped collaborating for La Veu on July 18, 1936, at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War, have been preserved. They are mainly political cartoons that graphically blaspheme the left in Catalonia and Spain and reflect the international situation, but we also find humor of a costumbrista nature that allows a graphic approach to the political and social reality of those years of the Second Spanish Republic in Catalonia..
La Veu de Catalunya, a political newspaper, was the organ of La Liga regionalista, a conservative and Catalanist political party. It had great influence and prestige in Catalonia. It was directed by Enric Prat de la Riba, Ramon d'Abadal and Joaquim Pellicena, and the masthead was designed by Lluís Domènech i Montaner. Its literary and intellectual pages were very important, with writers such as Joan Maragall, Eugeni d'Ors (Glosari), Josep Pla, Josep Carner, Francesc Cambó, among others. From April 1931, the newspaper was an active critical platform of the Second Republic, a period of great dynamism for the press in Barcelona, with the appearance of new newspapers, five of them in Catalan. In 1933 the newspaper was renewed, the editorial staff was enlarged with Brunet, Castanys, R. Garriga. The format was changed to tabloid and it was given a new look with new machinery and changing formal aspects, among them Castanys's cartoon, which incorporated an element of liveliness. In 1936 it was confiscated by the CNT, which published it until 1937, when the masthead disappeared
The cataloging of the drawings revealed that of the 451 originals that have been preserved, 400 were published by the newspaper La Veu de Catalunya between November 2, 1933 and July 18, 1936. The remaining 51 originals, although created for the newspaper, were never published, either because they were rejected by the newspaper itself or because they were censored.
On November 1, 1933, a prominent note on the front page of the newspaper announced the new daily collaboration of the cartoonist Valentí Castanys in La Veu de Catalunya. It highlighted his remarkable qualities as a cartoonist. Castanys always published in the morning edition of the newspaper. Castanys' cartoon appeared on the front page on March 18, 1934.
It is known that Castany's drawings were censored at least eight times during his collaboration with La Veu. The vignette was published in white in that day's edition of the newspaper, following a common practice in the press at the time.
Regarding the formal aspect, they are drawings in black ink on white cardboard -or paper-, in a slightly wavering landscape format, between 16 and 22 cm high and 22 and 26 cm wide. Most of them consist of a single scene. The title, the text and the dialogues proposed by the artist himself, which accompany the drawing when it is published, are always written in Catalan, are on the back of the document. We also find on the back the linguistic corrections made by the corrector of the newspaper, as well as indications of the size in which it will be printed (usually 12 cm), and sometimes a change in the title or modifications in the text proposed by Castanys. Orthographically, the greatest hesitations are found in using accents, which the corrector systematically corrected. The word "Veu" is often written in pencil in large letters. It should be noted that a significant number of originals, especially from 1935 onwards, are drawn by reusing the back of blank pages from a French-language fashion magazine (which could not be identified), probably due to the scarcity of paper.
The cartoonist's exile at the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in July 1936 marked the end of Castany's collaboration with the newspaper. At that time, the newspaper was seized by the anarchist trade union organization CNT. This was part of a series of seizures and/or collectivizations of the city's newspapers that took place during the Civil War in Barcelona. This date, which cannot have been a coincidence, coincides with the donation of the original drawings to the city's Historical Archive.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
You can consult the catalogue of the AHCB for the original drawings by Valentí Castanys:
About the biography and the publications in which he collaborated Valentí Castanys:
- Gin Foundation, humoristan, click here
- Tebeosfera, click here
The Historical Archive of the city preserves a complete collection of the newspaper La Veu de Catalunya. This newspaper was digitized in collaboration between the Biblioteca de Catalunya and the Ateneu Barcelonès. Digital version available at ARCA:
Bibliography of Castanys and periodicals in which he collaborated that can be consulted in the AHCB:
The Biblioteca de Catalunya preserves an important collection of original drawings by Valentí Castanys made for various periodicals in which he collaborated. He made an exhibition in 2023, it can be consulted in:
Bibliography
200 anys de premsa diària a Catalunya.-- Barcelona: Fundació Caixa de Catalunya: Arxiu Històric de la Ciutat: Col·legi de Periodistes de Catalunya, 1995.
CASTANYS, Valentí. La Memòria es diverteix: mig segle de records. Barcelona : Destino, 1964.
FIGUERES, Josep M. La Veu de Catalunya : (1899-1937). Barcelona: Ajuntament de Barcelona: Base, 2014.
SENDRA, Eloïsa. Fons i col·leccions de l'Arxiu Històric de la Ciutat de Barcelona: els dibuixos per a publicacions periòdiques com a element de patrimoni. A: L'Humor gràfic a Barcelona, 175 anys de tradició humorística catalana. Barcelona : Ajuntament de Barcelona, Efadós, 2016., p. 27-65.
TORRENT, Joan, TASIS, Rafael. Història de la premsa. Barcelona: Bruguera, 1966.
