On s’Alamera avenue, in the middle of Santa Eulària, this permanent collection includes a selection of oil paintings and sketches, as well as some furniture from the house where the painter lived during his time in the village and on the island, of which he wrote in 1912: “Everything here is far more beautiful than I’d imagined. A painter’s whole life is here.”
Who was Laureà Barrau?
Born to a middle-class family in Terrassa (Barcelona) in 1863, Laureá Barrau i Buñol began to learn Fine Arts while studying a degree in engineering, a project that he abandoned as soon as he got the chance to develop his artistic talent. After his first trip to Madrid, Laureà Barrau began to travel all over to learn the trends in art in those times and even went to study in Italy and France. His work, exhibited in Barcelona, Paris, Buenos Aires and New York, among other cities, shows the influence of historicism, eclecticism and naturalism.
In 1912, when the painter was 49, he visited Ibiza with his wife, Berta Valier, and was captivated by the light and customs of Ibiza. That was the first of several visits to the island, when he would stay in Santa Eulària. Then in 1931, they decided to move here permanently and he stayed until he died in 1957. After his death, his widow opened a small museum in the house they’d bought in Puig de Missa, known for many years as the Barrau Museum, but in 2014, the Town Council of Santa Eulària des Riu opened the Barrau Gallery so that the artist’s legacy would not be forgotten.
Barrau Gallery: A glance at Ibiza and its people
Once Laureá Barrau settled in Santa Eulària, he focused on his wife, the village, its people, the landscapes, everyday scenes and traditions from Ibiza, producing a beautiful artistic legacy which also gives an insight into life in Ibiza in the first half of the 20th century.
At the Barrau Gallery you can admire the vast sample of this painter’s work with nearly 200 paintings donated by his wife Berta Valier to the parish of Santa Eulària. From his mature years, fed by the light of Ibiza, he left realistic oil paintings and many drawings, watercolours and sketches. A look into the artist’s creative privacy and into the Ibiza he fell in love with and inspired him until the very end.
Barrau Gallery: Practical information
Address: Passeig de s’Alamera, 4. Santa Eulària des Riu.
Opening hours: Tuesday to Saturday, 4 p.m. - 7:30 p.m.
Phone: +34 971 33 00 72
Price: free entry
Cultural route
The Barrau Gallery is one of the stops on the Cultural Tour of Santa Eulària des Riu, visiting the main places of artistic or historical interest in this area, which you can do by car, motorbike, bike or on foot. The Can Ros Ethnographic Museum of Ibiza, the Puig de Missa fortified church, the Interpretation Centre of Río Can Planetes, the mill in Puig d’en Valls and the Pou de Gatzara well are other places of cultural interest that will also take you to the Ibiza depicted by Laureà Barrau.
