Alexandre de Riquer

ALEXANDRE DE RIQUER INGLADA (Calaf, Barcelona, 1856 - Palma de Mallorca, 1920).
"Cover project for the book Ex-libris. A de Riquer", 1903. Printing proof of the cover of the book Ex-libris by Alexandre de Riquer, 1903.
Photoengraving on paper.
Measurements: 31 x 20 cm; 48 x 39 cm (frame).

The year 1903 is published the book of Ex-libris of Alexandre de Riquer edited by the bookseller Leipzig, Karl W. Liesermann. This book was limited to 300 copies and contained some of the best etchings and photoengravings. Most of the copies were sold abroad to Ex-libris collectors and today it is a true bibliophile's jewel.

Drawer, painter and poet, de Riquer began his studies in Manresa and Languedoc, France. Back in Barcelona, he completed his training with Tomás Padró and Antoni Caba, at La Lonja. He then travels to Paris and London, being of special importance his contact in England with Japonism, Pre-Raphaelism and the Arts & Crafts movement. Influenced by figures such as William Morris, he embodied the Pre-Raphaelite ideal: artist, craftsman and poet united in the same man. He founded a furniture workshop, made designs for decorative arts and collaborated as a draftsman and poet with the most prominent publications of Catalan modernism. He also introduced the art of ex-libris in Catalonia, a discipline in which he achieved worldwide fame. He participated in numerous exhibitions and expositions, obtaining first medals in the Universal of Barcelona (1888), the National of Madrid (1906) and the Universal of Chicago (1893). Riquer is represented in the Prado Museum, the National Art Museum of Catalonia, the Ateneo of Barcelona, the Cau Ferrat and the Diocesan Museum of Barcelona, among many others.