Catalan School of the Late 19th Century

Catalan school of the late 19th century.
“Boat on the Beach.”
Oil on canvas.
With an illegible signature in the lower right corner.
Measurements: 28 x 55 cm; 62 x 84 cm (frame).
This painting depicts a landscape of great evocative power—melancholic and somber—in the style of the Catalan painter Modest Urgell (1839–1919) and his followers. However, although it shares with the master a taste for desolate landscapes with a twilight atmosphere, the approach is not so much romantic as it is realistic. In terms of composition, the view is organized into two distinctly horizontal planes, with the sky occupying as much space as the land. This pronounced horizontality accentuates the monumental scale of nature in contrast to the smallness and insignificance of man.