HERMENEGILDO ANGLADA CAMARASA (Barcelona, 1871 - Pollença, Mallorca, 1959)."Landscape".Pencil and

HERMENEGILDO ANGLADA CAMARASA (Barcelona, 1871 - Pollença, Mallorca, 1959).
"Landscape".
Pencil and chalk on paper.
Certified by Josep Maria Folch i Torres in the lower right-hand corner.
Measurements: 14 x 22 cm; 31 x 38 cm (frame).
Anglada Camarasa is one of the leading names in modern Catalan art, and undoubtedly the most internationally important of Spanish post-impressionism. He was the youngest painter of the second modernist generation, and is considered an outstanding representative of Post-Impressionism. He began his training with Tomás Moragas and later continued at the La Lonja School in Barcelona as a disciple of Modesto Urgell, whom he always proclaimed to be his great master, although his mature style was very different from Urgell's. During this period of training, his work was very different from that of Urgell. During this formative period Anglada Camarasa's work shows a clear interest in landscape and the human figure. After a brief contact with the "Els Quatre Gats" group, in 1894 he moved to Paris, where his style was influenced by Degas, Toulouse Lautrec, Fauvism and Orientalism. In the French capital he continued his training at the academies of Julian and Colarossi, where he was taught by Laurens, Constant and Girardot. France was for Anglada Camarasa the platform for his international launch. His work was placed on a par with that of the great names of the day, such as Klimt and Zorn. He also influenced personalities such as the young Kandinsky and Meyerhold, and figures such as Gorky and Diaghilev admired his painting. He held his first exhibition in Paris in 1898, displaying paintings of artificial colour and form, exuberant arabesque, based chiefly on the themes of glittering Paris by night. On the other hand, his solo exhibition at the Sala Parés in Barcelona in May 1900, and his time at "Els Quatre Gats", gave Catalan modernism a direct knowledge of the most modern painting in Paris, a circumstance that was a determining factor in the young Picasso's turn towards plastic modernism. Still in Paris, in 1904 Anglada Camarasa joined the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, of which he became a very active member, participating assiduously in its exhibitions. That same year he took part in an exhibition with artists of the Viennese Secession. Around this time he settled in Montmartre, where he opened a painting academy attended by Maria Blanchard and Tito Cittadini, among others. During this period his international activity multiplied and he took part in the Venice Biennials of 1903, 1905 and 1907, receiving the Gold Medal in the latter year, a prize he also won at the Buenos Aires Biennial of 1910. In 1914 he returned to Spain and settled permanently in Pollença, where he devoted himself fully to landscape painting. However, he did not lose sight of the international circuit and took part in the Carnegie Institute exhibition of 1924. That same year he was a guest of honour at the Pittsburgh International Exposition. He also had a solo exhibition at the 1929 Barcelona International Exhibition. He was made an Honorary Member of the Royal Academy of San Fernando in 1954, and three years later he was awarded the March Foundation art prize. Anglada Camarasa played a leading role in some of the most important moments in the history of art.