ELISEO MEIFRÈN ROIG (Barcelona, 1857 - 1940).
"Landscape.
Charcoal on paper.
Signed in the lower right-hand corner.
Size: 50 x 66 cm; 79 x 95 cm (frame).
A disciple of Antonio Caba at the School of Fine Arts in Barcelona, after finishing his studies he spent some time in Paris, where he coincided with the public beginning of impressionism and became acquainted with "plen air" painting. He returned to Barcelona in 1879 and that same year he won the gold medal at the Regional Exhibition in Valencia. The following year he made his individual debut at the Sala Parés in Barcelona, where he continued to exhibit regularly from then on. He was a member of the Modernist group and frequented Els Quatre Gats. Although he was also a portraitist, Meifrèn was eminently a landscape and marine painter. He was one of the discoverers of the pictorial possibilities of Cadaqués, and he also used to paint Mallorcan landscapes (he was director of the School of Fine Arts in Palma). He made several trips in search of new landscapes, especially to France, but also to the Canary Islands, Belgium, Italy and the United States. He held exhibitions in Barcelona, Madrid (1881), Chicago (1893), Paris (1899), Brussels (1910), Santiago de Chile (1910), Buenos Aires (1910), Amsterdam (1912) and San Francisco (1915), among many other cities around the world. His style began with the detailed realism that dominated the Catalan school at the end of the 19th century and gradually evolved towards Impressionism, a language that would not be fully evident in his work until his later years. Thus, in his maturity we see a landscape painting with a purely chromatic and luminous treatment, which leaves aside the meticulous description of the real model to capture an impression of nature, a purely visual and purely plastic image, in which the loose, impastoed and precise brushstroke configures forms and spaces based on the juxtaposition of colours. Throughout his career he won numerous prizes, including the first medals at the National Exhibition of Fine Arts in Madrid (1906) and Barcelona (1896), the Nonell prize in Barcelona (1935), the bronze medal at the Universal Exhibition in Paris (1888) and the grand prizes at the International Exhibitions of Buenos Aires (1910) and San Diego (1916). In 1952, Barcelona City Council dedicated a retrospective exhibition to him, held at the Palacio de la Virreina. He is currently represented in the Museo del Prado, the Museo Nacional de Arte de Cataluña, the MACBA in Barcelona and the Thyssen-Bornemisza, among many others.