Antoni Gaudí's work keeps secrets in the form of unknown drawings that little by little come to light. The architect did not draw much, he preferred models, but he had talent as a draftsman and from a very young age he showed “a great ability to graphically synthesize both direct observation and studied models,” says Josep Maria Tarragona, author of one of the architect's reference biographies (published in 1999 and 2016), who this Saturday unveiled a set of ten unpublished drawings within the framework of the Gaudí International Congress, including two self-portraits, front and back. in profile, from 1876, when he was between 23 and 24 years old.
The presentation of the discovery has been one of the presentations that a priori aroused the greatest expectation among the hundred international scholars and specialists who have exchanged new contributions to the knowledge of Gaudí in La Pedrera. The drawings belonged to a classmate of Gaudí, Emili Cabanyes i Rabassa (Mataró, 1850-1916), who became mayor of Mataró, and were passed down by inheritance, from generation to generation, until today. The drawings that are now coming to light are part of a much more voluminous folder that contains a total of 37 original papers.
Tarragona, who has had the collaboration of Francesc Xavier Jové in his research, has no doubts about the authenticity of the drawings, since their "historical traceability is clear" and the figures, letters and words have been contrasted with those that appear in the Reus Manuscript, the only notebook of notes and notes written directly by the architect that has survived to this day. It was written between 1873 and 1879, during his student years, and was saved from the burning of his Sagrada Família workshop during the Civil War thanks to the architect Domènech Sugrañes. For the author of the presentation, the coincidence of the shapes between them is evident, and there are even labels with numerous plans signed by Gaudí.
Before finishing his degree, Gaudí already made the plans for the house of the manager of the Cooperativa Obrera Mataronense, his first building, what is known today as Nau Gaudí, headquarters of the Lluís Bassat collection. He made it with Emili Cabanyes, with whom Tarragona and Francesc Xavier Jové do not rule out that Gaudí collaborated occasionally on projects as well as ephemerally on specific projects such as the chapel of the Sacrament of the Basilica of Santa María. And it was also in Mataró where he met his only known love, Pepeta Moreu, who gave him a crush.
One of the drawings, Nineveh (two male figures arranged vertically are reminiscent of Assyrian models and, at the bottom, a large winged bull) is done in ink on satin cloth paper, while the rest are graphite on tracing paper, more or less transparent. Among the latter are two self-portraits, abundant hair and long, bushy beards, resolved through small grouped strokes and a date, 1876.
In another, more or less from the same moment, the architect sketches a new self-portrait, this time of his left hand, the fingers long and narrow, which shares space on the paper with animal heads converted into ornamental pieces and small bilateral finials and a geometric study.
Others, of a more technical nature, have also been found in the folder, such as the preliminary project for a siphon in a bleaching facility and a crane; , ornamental and constructive studies with various elements, a worksheet with the coat of arms of Mataró (a hand holding two branched stems with lanceolate leaves) or studies of crownings and architectural elements based on illustrations by the French architect Viollet-le-Duc.
The Gaudí International Congress 2026, which closes its doors today in La Pedrera, has hosted forty presentations that have meant as many new contributions to the architect's studio. But, above all, highlights Galdric Santana, the curator of Any Gaudí 2026 in which the symposium is framed, and director of the Gaudí Chair, marks a generational change among researchers, both inside and outside Catalonia, which means a breath of fresh air and the arrival of new knowledge from very diverse fields. "Everything was very stagnant, in some way the research was always in their hands, and this congress has opened the doors to new perspectives that may not initially mean an extraordinary contribution but open paths that no one was seeing."
The interest of the set lies in the unpublished or practically unknown nature of some drawings that, according to Gaudí's biographer, already show in an early way his "ability to express one's own architectural or decorative ideas with very simple sketches", as well as the "evolution of the initial ideas towards physical realization."
