Josep was a Catalan Spanish muralist, the son of an affluent textile industry family and friend of Salvador Dalí. He was particularly known for his grisaille style, often in gold and black.
In 1899, when Josep was 25, he went to Paris and became involved with artists ascribed to the group known as Les Nabis, gravitating around Paul Ranson (1864–1909), who had studied at the renowned private Académie Julian. Académie Julian was founded in 1868 by painter Rodolphe Julian. Both the Académie Julian and Académie Colarossi, were frequented by would-be foreign painters, engravers and sculptors from around the world. They accepted female students and allowed them to draw the nude male models, which was uncommon at this time in history. Many of the nude models gracing today millionaires' residences and the world's museums came from such the private but none-too-prudish Paris art schools.
Joseph married Misia Godebska, (born Maria Zofia Olga Zenajda Godebska; 30 March 1872–1950), a pianist of Polish descent who hosted an artistic salon in Paris. She was a patron and friend of numerous artists, for whom she regularly posed. Her father was Cyprian Godebski (1835–1909), was a renowned Polish sculptor and professor at the Imperial Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg from 1870. Her mother, Zofia Servais, was the daughter of a noted Belgian cellist, Adrien-François Servais.
But after a few years, in 1928, he left her for the sculptress Isabelle Roussadana Mdivani (1906–1938). Roussie, as she was called, was the sister of Serge, Alexis, David, and Nina, and one of the five Mdivani siblings from a Georgian-Russian nobility family that had emigrated to Paris after the Russian Revolution in 1917. Roussie died in 1938.
Josep's best-known public murals are in the Hôtel de Ville in Paris, the Cathedral of Vic in Catalonia, Spain, the League of Nations in Geneva. He also has several murals in New York which include the Waldorf-Astoria, 30 Rockefeller Center and the GE Center. His mural “American Progress” replaced Diego Rivera’s mural "Man at the Crossroads" which Nelson Rockefeller destroyed because it included an image of Lenin.
"New York, New York Passenger and Crew Lists, 1909, 1925-1957", index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/KXMV-WD2 : accessed 01 Aug 2014), Jose Sert traveling with Misia (Godebska) Sert, 1926.
"New York, New York Passenger and Crew Lists, 1909, 1925-1957", index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/KXLH-SZ9 : accessed 01 Aug 2014), Joseph M. Sert, 1926.
"New York, New York Passenger and Crew Lists, 1909, 1925-1957", index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/24NL-PTP : accessed 01 Aug 2014), Jose Maria Sert traveling with Isabelle (Mdivani) Sert, 1931.
"New York, New York Passenger and Crew Lists, 1909, 1925-1957", index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/24V9-93X : accessed 01 Aug 2014), Jose Maria Sert traveling with Isabelle (Mdivani) Sert, 1933.
"New York, New York Passenger and Crew Lists, 1909, 1925-1957", index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/24K8-3LQ : accessed 01 Aug 2014), Joseph Marie Sert traveling with Isabelle (Mdivani) Sert, 1936.
"New York, New York Passenger and Crew Lists, 1909, 1925-1957", index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/2424-FY8 : accessed 01 Aug 2014), Jose M Sert, 1938.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josep_Maria_Sert
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