Carlos Nadal

CARLES NADAL FARRERAS (Paris, 1917 – Sitges, Barcelona, 1998).
“Cityscape with Canal, France,” 1974.
Oil on marouflage paper mounted on hardboard.
Signed and dated in the lower right corner.
Measurements: 50 x 80 cm; 76 x 105 cm (frame).

Dated 1974, this work was created during a period of full artistic maturity for Carlos Nadal, when his unique interpretation of Fauvism was already fully established. Here, the artist transforms a French urban view into an intensely chromatic composition, subordinating the depiction of the setting to the rhythm of the painting and a deliberately free conception of space.

The scene is structured by the pronounced curved line of the pier and the bridge on the left, which guide the viewer’s gaze toward a compact cluster of buildings dominated by two bell towers. The small boat in the foreground and the French flags provide narrative and spatial references, while the buildings lean, overlap, and alter their proportions to intensify the composition’s dynamism. Nadal does not seek an exact topographical reproduction, but rather the evocation of the place through color, line, and movement.

Vivid reds, yellows, greens, and blues follow one another in stark hallmarks, framed by dark outlines that structure the forms. The sky takes on special significance, rendered with broad, curved, and sweeping brushstrokes that extend the movement of the architecture and lend the entire surface a remarkable visual energy. The year 1974 is particularly significant: Nadal was still connected to Brussels at the time, where he had taken up residence after his marriage to the sculptor Flore Joris, shortly before the family settled permanently in Spain in the mid-1970s. It was precisely during his years in France and Belgium that, according to the artist’s own documentation, the Fauvist orientation that would characterize his mature work fully crystallized.

Carlos Nadal enjoyed a distinguished international career and developed a personal artistic language closely linked to Fauvism, in which color became his primary means of expression. Trained at the Escuela Superior de Bellas Artes de San Jorge in Barcelona, he furthered his studies in Paris and, from the late 1940s onward, spent much of his career in Belgium. His time in Brussels proved decisive in the development of the intense color palette and compositional freedom that characterize his mature work.
He exhibited extensively in Spain and Europe, at galleries such as Georges Giroux, Brachot, Sala Gaspar, Sala Parés, and Sala Vayreda, and was invited to show his work at the Royal Academy in London. He received institutional recognition early on: in 1950, the Royal Belgian Commission for Museums acquired one of his paintings, and subsequently other works entered Spanish public collections. His work is represented in institutions such as the MACBA in Barcelona and in Belgian museum collections, a testament to the international renown the artist achieved.