What was Manuel Vicens's profession?

Manuel Vicens was a stock and currency broker, the client who commissioned Antoni Gaudí to design Casa Vicens in Barcelona.

Vicens i Montaner commissioned the house in 1878 as a summer residence for his family in Gràcia. He inherited the plot from his mother, Rosa Montaner i Matas, in 1877. Although relatively little is known about his professional life, his will records a substantial property portfolio, including a house in Alella, Barcelona properties and land around Vallvidrera.

Casa Vicens was built between 1883 and 1885 and became one of Gaudí’s earliest major works. Its patterned ceramic tiles, brickwork, ironwork and botanical motifs already reveal the architect’s interest in combining architecture with natural forms. Gaudí and Vicens apparently became friends, and Gaudí spent summers at Vicens’s house in Alella during the 1880s.

The main confusion comes from later associations with ceramics or manufacturing because Casa Vicens is famous for its decorative tiles. Vicens himself, however, was not a tile or textile manufacturer and was not a savings-bank director.