de Creeft, José
(27 November 1884–11 September 1982)
- Ilene Susan Fort
Extract
de Creeft, José (27 November 1884–11 September 1982), sculptor and teacher, was born in Guadalajara, Spain, the son of Catalans Mariano de Creeft y Masdeu, a military officer, and Rosa Champane y Ortiz. When he was four the family moved to Barcelona, where in 1890 his father died. As a youth de Creeft helped support his family by modeling figurines for sale at the annual festival of Santa Lucia in 1895, and in 1898 he was an apprentice at the bronze foundry of Masriera and Campins. Two years later he entered the Madrid workshop of Augustin Querol, the official government sculptor, and studied drawing and sculpture, the latter with Ignacio Zuloaga. In 1903 he first exhibited portrait sculptures at El Círculo de Bellas Artes....
