A look at the furnishings of Palau Güell
The furniture is the original that was in the building when the owner's family lived there, and there is also some other modernist furniture.
It is unusual for a visitable building with a long history to retain its original furnishings. In the Palau Güell, a building designed by Antoni Gaudí in 1886 at the request of his great patron, Eusebi Güell, you can see many of the pieces of furniture with which the businessman's family lived. They are grouped together in a permanent exhibition in four rooms on the Palau's dormitory floor. The exhibition is called Palau Güell: A Look at Furniture, and also includes a selection of works by leading Catalan cabinetmakers and decorators from the turn of the 19th to the 20th century, such as Francesc Vidal i Jevellí, Gaspar Homar, Alexandre de Riquer and Joan Busquets.
The exhibition is therefore divided into two areas. The Güell Family Decor explains what the furniture in this house was like between 1890 and 1927. There are images of the period and furniture that the Diputació de Barcelona, the current owner of the building, was able to recover through acquisitions, donations and loans from organisations and private individuals. Some of the furniture was designed by Gaudí himself. In the area The Interior Designers of Modernisme there is furniture acquired from 1945 onwards by the Diputació but which had not been part of the Güell family's pieces. Among the many works that visitors to the Palau can see are a bronze by the sculptor Josep Llimona entitled Modestia, from 1892, Eusebi Güell's office table, a mahogany and guadamasil sofa, of highly original design and excellent technical quality, which had been located in the central hall and could have been designed by Gaudí or by his disciple and collaborator Francesc Berenguer, or a secretaire by Gaspar Homar from around 1905 in a refined and simple style, very much influenced by Japanese art.
The exhibition is accessible in sign language, as each panel has a QR code that leads to a video with a description in sign language.
For more information, click on the link.