Ángel Ferrant and the drawings of the children of the Escuela del Mar in Barcelona

Abstract

Ángel Ferrant was one of the most important artists of the Spanish art scene of the twentieth century, also standing out for his pedagogical work and his interest in children's drawings. His stay in Vienna in 1927 and his visit to the Escuela del Mar in Barcelona in 1931 profoundly defined his educational vision. To understand the impact that the drawings of the children of the Escuela del Mar had on Ferrant, we have studied his texts and his collection of school drawings currently kept at the Ferrant Fund of the Patio Herreriano Museum; also, we have studied the contents and drawings in the school magazine Garbí, as well as other writings by the critic Sebastián Gasch and by the school´s principal, Pablo Vergés. In this research, the method of constant comparison belonging to Grounded Theory has been used. The drawings made by the children of the Escuela del Mar have their own style, characterized by the spontaneity of the strokes and by the ingenious solutions used by the children, derived from the influence of different currents of pedagogical renewal. The drawings also offer a glimpse of Spain at that time through the child's gaze and allow us appreciate the link between this graphic language and Ferrant's work.