JOSEFA TOLRÀ URBAN ITINERARY

 

JOSEFA TOLRÀ, MEDIUM AND ARTIST. CABRILS 1880-1959 (location)

Josefa Tolrà i Abril, medium and visionary artist, is born on 9 carrer de Sant Salvador, on January 6, 1880. The eldest daughter of Vicenç Tolrà i Bergay and Maria Amat i Abril, she has two siblings, Antoni and Salvi, who are six and nine years younger than her, respectively. Her maternal grandparents, Salvi and Josefa, also live with them in the family home.

Affectionately known as Pepeta, her childhood is spent helping her family and learning how to do the household chores, just like most girls her age. Helping her mother do the laundry at the public washhouse at torrent Roig (Roig stream), or fetching water from the Sagrera fountain with an earthenware jug, back when homes had no running water, are everyday chores that are part and parcel of a traditional gender role-based upbringing. She plays, but not like children today. Most girls from that time don’t have much fun, and their social lives revolve around the family and the religious community.

In 1885, aged five, her parents enroll her in the school run by the Dominican Sisters of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin to give her a basic education.

Her father is a farmer, but in 1869 Mr. Coll’s factory opens up new opportunities for a number of families in the town who, just like them, jump at the chance for stable employment so more members of the household can bring in money. Her parents are working at the factory when Josefa is born and, when she is old enough, she would go on to join them there, working alongside her mother.

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SCHOOL (location)

The schools of the Dominican Sisters of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin are inaugurated in 1883, thanks to the patronage of benefactor Emília Carles Tolrà (Cabrils, 1848 – 1915), who dreams that one day every girl will have access to an education.

Josefa starts school on 19 January 1885, aged 5, and finishes her “compulsory education” on 19 May 1891, at the age of 11. The education she receives as a young girl at “les Monges” and at home plays a big part in the values and knowledge she acquires that will shape her for the rest of her life. Despite only attending school for a short time, she learns to read and write, do arithmetic, she studies the Christian doctrine, learns about morals, Spanish grammar, not to mention learning to sew and embroider.

Josefa Tolrà never receives any formal fine art training. She writes in Catalan and Spanish while in a trance mediumship state. The depth of her writing was outstanding. She writes poems, healing recipes, prose, writing about everything from science, religion, geology, geography, historical figures, and renowned artists such as Leonardo da Vinci and Rembrandt, as well as mentioning Father Jacint Verdaguer and her hometown of Cabrils and the light beings she learns to live with right up until her death.

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WORK AT THE FACTORY (location)

In the 19th century and the turn of the 20th century, girls work in textile factories after attending school for a few years. This is a “natural” step, in particular if the mother already works in one of the factories. This is true for Josefa Tolrà.

In the wake of the phylloxera plague outbreak in Maresme in 1883, the region undergoes a considerable transformation that changes it forever. This is significant because, although it already had a small-scale artisanal textile industry, with some homes even having small workshops, the construction of two factories towards the end of the 19th century opens up employment opportunities for many families that helps mitigate the effects of the agricultural crisis.

With this in mind, let’s imagine a girl like Josefa Tolrà working in the factory. Endless hours amidst noise and lint. As low as her wage is, it goes a long way to helping her family. With her small and nimble hands, just like other girls, she collects cotton remnants, crouches under the machines to tie broken threads and untangle knots. She only leaves once she gets married, to take care of her three children.

At the age of sixty, she channels the devastating pain of losing her two sons into drawing, writing and illustrating a number of books, not to mention embroidering. She does all this while sitting in her rocking chair in a trance mediumship state. The intricate patterns, borders, and trellis stitching is second to none. They quality is exquisite.

Each stitch followed the instructions she is given by her spirit guides, sometimes crying out, ‘Look what they make me do!".

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THERE CAN BE NO PEACE WHERE HARMONY IS NOT UNDERSTOOD (Josefa Tolrà) (location)

In this parish church of Santa Creu, on December 23, 1900, the rector Josep Massaveu Rovira married Josefa Tolrà Abril and Jaume Lladó Vives. Jaume is 24 years old, a farmer. Josefa is 20 and has been working at Mr. Coll's Factory for years. In this same temple, they also baptize their three children, Joan, Maria and Pere.

Josefa is a good Christian, deeply religious and charitable, who follows the dictates of the messengers of good will and the divine teacher Jesus. As a healer, she receives neighbours and strangers in search of comfort and help. She practices the imposition of hands, in the name of the good Jesus, to repair the ailments of the soul that damage the body.

Her writings and drawings often refer to her spirituality. There are numerous allegories of religious themes and scenes from the Bible, such as Adam and Eve, the Last Supper, the Virgin Mary, Jesus with the apostles, the Epiphany or Christmas. On occasion, messages are communicated and channelled from the spirits of Father Cinto Verdaguer and Teresa of Jesus.

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THE LLADÓ-TOLRÀ FAMILY (location)

This is the house in Can Bergay where the medium and artist Josefa Tolrà i Abri lived. She meets Jaume Lladó i Vives (Cabrils, 1877 – 1955) around the turn of the century, who she marries on 23 December 1900. Jaume is a farmer who works on a plot of land that he rents from Salvador Armengol in the valley of the riera de Cabrils (Cabrils stream). Josefa works at Mr Coll’s factory. Their son Joan is born not long after they were married. Maria is born in 1905, followed by Pere in 1910. She stops working to look after her three children at home.

Life is good until Pere dies, before turning fifteen. After an unbearable mourning period, the Lladó-Tolrà family suffers yet another devastating loss in 1938. Joan, their eldest son, is conscripted at the age of 36, but would never return home. Although they would never truly get over this devastating loss, it opens up a channel of communication between Josefa and an otherworldly reality that scares her. She starts seeing faces and hearing voices that speak to her.

With the help of a close relative, the poet and spiritualist Jordi Galbany Planas, she learns to deal with her profound sadness and to embrace her mediumship. She is sixty years old. Sitting at the dining table, with a notebook and pen in hand, she starts working on strange sketches that, over time, turn into writings and drawings.

Having had his curiosity sparked by Maria Dolors Orriols, the sculptor Moisès Villèlia pays her a visit. The members of Club 49 and Dau al Set will do the same. Artists, locals, as well as people from the surrounding areas start visiting her after hearing about her ability to heal.

Her husband dies on 9 October 1955 and she is left alone with her daughter Maria. To avoid absences while Maria is working at the factory, Jordi Galbany puts them up in his home in Ca l’Arlot.

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CA L’ARLOT, A SPACE BRIMMING WITH CREATIVITY AND SPIRITUALITY. (location)

Some houses seem to breathe; their walls holding an invisible breath, a feeling of comfort and well-being. This is such a house. It is not just any house. Ca l’Arlot is a creative space.

This is where the poet and spiritualist, Jordi Galbany i Planas (1912–2005) is born, as well as his two sons, one of which is the sardana composer, Sigfrid Galbany i Abril (1936–2024). The house is also home to the artist and medium, Josefa Tolrà i Abril towards the end of her life. She lives there with her daughter Maria, who never marries. Ca l’Arlot becomes a space that blurs the line between the tangible and the intangible.

She is visited by the artists Moisès Villèlia and Magda Bolumar who, in the 1950s, were based at Can Rin in Cabrils. Her story is shared among friends from the Club 49 cultural group and the Dau al Set artists’ circle, among them the poet Joan Brossa and the critic Alexandre Cirici-Pellicer, who are left in awe. Visitors come and go. When in a state of trance, the artist and medium speaks to them about science, history, or philosophy.

Josefa expresses her mediumship through drawing, writing, and embroidery, and is happy to see anyone who visits her, whether they are seeking advice or looking to be healed. She is a bridge between “those above” and those on earth, and she can see people’s auras. Her work doesn’t belong to her; it can’t be sold or bought. It is an antidote to rational order to overcome existential pain. It is the result of an extrasensory perception passed on to her from the other side. She lets the fluidic force be felt through her hand, which guides her while she is drawing or embroidering, although she only offers it to those she deems worthy.

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SHE CLOSED HER EYES FOR A MOMENT BUT NEVER OPENED THEM AGAIN (location)

This cemetery, in niche number 138 in Sant Mateu Square, is the resting place of Josefa Tolrà i Abril, the medium and artist at the forefront of visionary art in the first half of the 20th century on the Iberian Peninsula.

Her life story is intrinsically linked to her ability as a medium and clairvoyant, which comes to the fore after the death of her second son during the Spanish Civil War. His body never returns home. In her sixties, the overwhelming grief for her two sons triggers a deep depression. Mentored by her relative Jordi Galbany, her understanding and practice of spiritism and theosophy allows her to tap into a healing transcendence. “I only feel at peace when I draw”, she often says to those around her.

On 15 October 1959, sat in her rocking chair, with a cup of coffee with milk in one hand and holding the spoon in the other, Josefa closes her eyes for the last time. She is found by her relative, Jordi Galbany, who had helped her develop her mediumship after losing her second son, as if she had fallen asleep, with a look of serenity on her face. In this way, she herself became one of her beloved light beings”.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

The essentials

  • BONET JULVE, Pilar. Josefa Tolrà, Mèdium y artista. Barcelona: Associació Josefa Tolrà, 2022. Segona edició (català-español-english)
  • BONET JULVE, Pilart. La Mèdium i el Poeta. Una conversa astral entre Josefa Tolrà i Joan Brossa. Barcelona: Ajuntament de Barcelona-Fundació Joan Brossa, 2020. (català-español-english)
  • BONET JULVE, Pilar. La Mano Guiada. Josefa Tolrà - Madge Gill. Barcelona: Museu Nacional de Catalunya, MNAC, 2023 (edició en català, castellà o anglès)

Context references

  • CIRLOT, Lourdes Cirlot i MANONELLES Laia (coords.) Las vanguardias artísticas a la luz del esoterismo y la espiritualidad. Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona, 2014.
    • (BONET JULVE, Pilar, “El pensamiento lateral del arte contemporáneo: Josefa Tolrà, médium y artista (1880-1959)”, pp.57-77)
  • RIVERA, Mapi. El Sentido Numinoso de la Luz. Aproximaciones entre creación y experiencia visionaria. Barcelona: Herder, 2018.
  • MARÍN, Dolors. Espiritistes i lliurepensadores: dones pioneres en la lluita pels drets civils. Barcelona: Angle, 2018. 
  • ABARCA, Antonio, BUIL, Antonio Buil. Julia Aguilar, Always (1899-1979). Rebelde y Artista. Barbastro, 2014. 
  • GRAUS FERRER, Andrea. Ciencia y Espiritismo en España (1880-1930). Granada: Comares, 2019.
  • AA.VV. Art i follia. Joan Obiols Vié, psiquiatre i humanista. Barcelona: Ajuntament de Barcelona-Fundació Joan Brossa, 2019.
    • (BONET JULVE, Pilar, “Joan Obiols i el Club 49. De la poesia escènica de Joan Brossa a les imatges mediúmniques de Josefa Tolrà”, pp.80-92)
  • GONZÁLEZ, Maria José, RIUS GATELL, Rosa. Remedios Varo. Caminos del conocimiento, la creación y el exilio. Granada: Eutelequia, 2013. 
  • GARCÍA, Graciela. La Pulsión Creativa al Desnudo. Vitoria-Gasteiz: Sans Soleil Ediciones, 2019. 
  • LÓPEZ ARNAIZ, Irene, LÓPEZ, Raquel (eds.). Coreografiar lo invisible. Danza, arte y esoterismo en los albores del siglo XX. Vitoria-Gasteiz: Sans Soleil Ediciones, 2023.
    • (BONET JULVE, Pilar, “Esoterismo y feminismo. Hilma af Klint y la danza de los planetas”, pp.131-156).
  • MARÍN, Dolors. Visionarias, librepensadors y espiritistas. Mujeres pioneras de las luchas sociales (1830-1931). Editorial Almuzara, 2025.

References to the artist Josefa Tolrà, images, texts, catalogues and dictionaries

  • ¿La guerra ha terminado? Arte en un mundo dividido (1945-1968). Madrid: Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (MNCARS), 2010
  • Le Cahier Dessiné. Paris: Halle Saint Pierre, 2015
  • ROMA, Valentín, LAHUERTA Juan José, SERRA, Pepe. Del Segon Orígen. Arts a Catalunya 1950-1977. Barcelona: Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya (MNAC), 2015
  • MARTÍNEZ, Rosa. Nada temas, dice ella. Valladolid: Museo Nacional de Escultura, 2016
  • Art i Cultura de Postguerra. Barcelona 1939-1962. Barcelona: Ajuntament de Barcelona-Àmbit, 2018
  • SOLER, Pilar, GAETA, Antonio. El Ojo Eléctrico. Madrid: La Casa Encendida, 2019.
    • (BONET JULVE, Pilar. “Las estrellas bajan a la tierra”, pp. 53-91)
  • ALEMANI, Cecilia. Il Latte dei Sogni. Venecia: Biennale Arte Venezia, 2022
  • MITRANI, Àlex. Quina humanitat? La figura humana després de la guerra (1940-1966). Barcelona: Museu Nacional de Catalunya, MNAC, 2023.
  • Ellas. Diccionario de mujeres artistas hasta 1900. Vol.1 Madrid: EXIT Publicaciones, 2022.
  • NORANDI, Elina. Cent dues artistes. Arts Visuals A cura d’Elina Norandi. Barcelona: Univers, 2022.
  • Art Brut. Dans l’intimité d’une collection. La donation Decharme au centre Pompidou. Grand Palais, Paris, 2025. Editions de la RMN-GP.
  • Free publication:  Bric-à-Brac & Visionyary Women Art.
  • BONET JULVE, Pilar, GÓNZALEZ, Maria José. Cosmología esotèrica. Arte, ciència, espiritualidad y utopia de mujeres visionarias. Sans Soleil Ediciones, 2024. Madrid. 

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Darrera actualització: 10.10.2025 | 08:08