The Altar of Race, a drawing for one of the San Telmo Museoa Murals

José Maria Sert y Badia, one of the great Spanish muralists, was one of the most sought-after and controversial artists of his time. Influenced by the Catalan Renaixença and trained in Modernism, he developed his artistic style on the periphery of the various stylistic trends of his time, incorporating aspects of Orientalism, the Baroque and an individualized brand of Goya-esque Expressionism and his own potent imagination into compositions based upon a grandiloquent narrative. The present lot is a sketch for the murals at the Dominican convent at San Telmo, which Sert undertook from 1929 focusing on the history of the Gipuzkoa region and the symbolism of the Basque people. The Altar of Race, is the focal point of the enormous frescoes, situated in the chancel of the church, and this final design shows the raging sea with St Anselm (San Telmo) the patron saint of sailors saving the rowing boat from sinking.