9 December 2014

lecture and presentation of book

Navarrese photography. The collection of the Marquis of Real Defensa

D. Ignacio Miguéliz Valcarlos
Chair of Navarrese Heritage and Art

On the occasion of the presentation of the book Navarrese photography. The Marquis of Real Defensa Collectionpublished by the Mencos Foundation, which is available to anyone who wishes to download it from the Foundation's website, we are reviewing the contents of the book, focusing on the photographs of Navarrese authors or topic in the collection. The book deals with 9 authors who worked in Pamplona throughout the 19th and 20th centuries: Anselmo María Coyne, Leopoldo Ducloux, Emilio Pliego, José Roldán, father and son, José Galle, Juan Gómez, Agustín Zaragüeta and the Zubieta y Retegui studio (Francisco Zubieta Vidaurre and Andrés Retegui Gastearena), as well as a photographer based in Corella, Mariano García. Among the works produced by these photographers, as well as the artefacts of anonymous authorship preserved, we can establish five thematic groups: portraits, mostly studio portraits, private photographs, some of which transcended this sphere due to the social importance of the family, public images, urban and monumental views, and finally the photographs of the Sanfermin fiestas.

The origin of this collection, the product of family inheritances and compilations, can be traced back to the interest shown in photography by Don Tiburcio Mencos y Bernaldo de Quirós (1891-1969) and Doña Isabel Doussinague Brunet (1907-1974), Marquises of La Real Defensa. The Mencos and Bernaldo de Quirós collections are owed to the former, while the Brunet collection, which is of great importance in terms of its issue and contains a large collection of images of Guipúzcoa, as well as the Vesolla collection, with an interesting collection of Carlist photographs, are owed to the inheritance received by Isabel. The Marquises' interest in photography was passed on to their son, Joaquín Mencos Doussinague (1944), who took over the custody of the house's art collections, considering himself to be merely the administrator of the assets he had inherited from his elders and which he had to pass on to his successors. Don Joaquín's interest is not only responsible for the publication of this volume, but also for the organisation of two exhibitions in his house in Tafalla, Fotografía en Navarra. La colección del marqués de la Real Defensa and Obras navarras en la colección de fotografía del marqués de la Real Defensa, which constitute the germ of this study.
 

The speakers at the book's presentation were Mr Ricardo Fernández Gracia, director of the Chair de Patrimonio y Arte Navarro, Mr Joaquín Ignacio Mencos, Marquis of the Real Defensa and Mr Ignacio Miguéliz, author of the book.
 

In this way, and due to the origin of the different funds that make up the collection, we can say that through them we are going to travel through the history of photography in our community by the hand of its protagonists, the Mencos family, together with other relatives such as the Elio, Doussinague, Sánchez-framework, etc., being able to appreciate thanks to these images not only the evolution of this art, but also of Pamplona and Navarrese society throughout this time. goal Thus, through the collection we can see the evolution of photography from the images of the 19th century, in which the different formats of the carte and some urban views predominate, to the images captured in the following century, which are characterised by a direct, documentary photography, as their aim was not to take artistic shots, but to document the daily pulse of city life through the events reflected in their images. In many cases these reports are used by the graphic press, both in Navarre and nationally, for which they work. Likewise, and thanks to these images, we can also see the rapid evolution of photography throughout history, both in terms of technique and subject matter.

Gathering at the palace of Guenduláin

Portrait of Antonio Sánchez-framework Doussinague
Agustín Zaragüeta

Portrait of Isabel Doussinague y Brunet, Marquise de la Real Defensa. José Galle.