José Moragas Pomar

JOSÉ MORAGAS POMAR (Barcelona, second half of the 19th century).
“Reading in the Cloister,” 1890.
Watercolor on paper.
With a Sala Parés label on the reverse.
Signed and dated in the lower right corner.
Measurements: 45 x 28 cm; 67 x 52 cm (frame).

The delicacy of the watercolor and the evocation of an idealized past define this scene by José Moragas Pomar, featuring a young woman absorbed in reading in a medieval cloister. Her historically inspired attire, the stone arches, and the Solomonic column create a setting that links the work to the historicist taste of nineteenth-century painting.

A 19th-century Spanish watercolorist who specialized in genre scenes, José Moragas was also a notable collector of antiquities. His scenes of grand mansions, as well as gallant and festive themes set in the 18th century, were also very popular and were even reproduced as lithographs.