Alexandre de Riquer

ALEXANDRE DE RIQUER INGLADA (Calaf, Barcelona, 1856 - Palma de Mallorca, 1920).
"Printing proofs of the Prospectus of the book Exlibris A. de Riquer", 1903.
Signed and numbered on plate.
Measurements: 27 x 18 cm (printing proof without letters); 28 x 21 cm (printing proof of the prospectus with letters. Printed by Josep Thomas); 41 x 54 cm (frame).

These two proofs of the promotional leaflet for the book Exlibris A. de Riquer is a bibliophile's jewel of which only 300 copies were made. This prospectus, written in French and used to disseminate and market the work, was previously unknown. It is possible that very few were made and only this one (which Alexandre de Riquer kept together with the proof avant la lettre) has reached our days.

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.