Monument to Camille Saint-Saëns

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria · Category: Art · Subcategory: Sculpture · Year: 1987 · Authors: Juan Borges Linares

The bouts of bronquitis that [Saint-Saëns] suffered continually forced him to emigrate during the winter season to places where weather conditions were not so hard as in France. This was one of the main reasons that our biographee had to bring him, from Cádiz, to Las Palmas de Gran Canaria in December 1889, However, on this occasion this was not the only reason, as he was also blighted by family troubles which made him flee in search of peace and quiet. Here on the island he found just what he was looking for, the proof of which is he came back on a further six occasions.

Borges Linares represents the full figure of Saint-Saëns, in blue Arucas quarry stone. The statue measure around three metres in height and was worked from two blocks of stone. He is portrayed in elegant traditional dress, with his jacket opened to partly reveal his waistcoat and shirt. As is habitual in this sculptor, he offers us a straightforward reproduction of the composer's facial features, in as far as it transcends a psychological interpretation, capturing a rather haughty look, while at the same time somewhat serious, and in a reflesive mood. A flower etched onto the buttonhole of his jacket served as a way of symbolising this somewhat bohemian and excentric side that typified the man's life. Resolved in a hieratic manner, the edges are exagerated, enhancing its vertical appearance. With this work, Borges Linares did away with rounded bulky forms and the dynamism he has us accustomed to.

The sculpture was donated by the Royal Economic Society of Friends of the Country to the Las Palmas de Gran Canaria Town Hall.

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