Clotilde

Clotilde Cerdà Bosch

Esmeralda Cervantes - Eméraud

Barcelona , 1862
Santa Cruz de Tenerife , 1926

Performer

Harpist

She was the daughter of the renowned urban planner Ildefons Cerdà and the painter Clotilde Bosch. She studied in Barcelona and later in Paris with Felix Godefroid. She toured Europe as a prodigy girl and performed for figures such as Queen Isabell II of Spain, Queen Victoria of England, the Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria, as well as Victor Hugo, who baptized her with the name of Esmeralda Cervantes. She also toured the American continent and some cities in Asia, Middle East and Africa. She had a progressive political commitment in favor of women's rights. In 1883, she moved temporarily to Barcelona where she founded the Academy of Sciences, Arts and Crafts (Acadèmia de Ciències, Arts i Oficis), an institution devoted to female education (1885-1887). After finishing her artistic and educational career, she returned to Barcelona in 1919, not without uninterrupted trips. She is the author of Historia del arpa (1885).