Francisco Masriera

FRANCISCO MASRIERA Y MANOVENS (Barcelona, 1842-1902).
"Female portrait". 1884.
Oil on canvas.
Signed and dated in the lower right corner.
Restoration visible on the back.
Measurements: 81 x 65 cm; 101 x 85 cm (frame).

Masriera, one of the greatest Catalan portraitists of his time, always put special interest in the feminine figure. In this portrait of a lady we can appreciate his ability to capture the character of the sitter as in a snapshot and at the same time capture the delicate details of the costume with a vivid and bold brushstroke.

Spanish painter, writer and goldsmith, he began his training in the jewelry workshop of his father José María Masriera and in that of José Serra y Porson. Always concerned about improving and approaching new horizons, he refined his technique after traveling to Geneva where he learned the enamel process, which will be one of the main hallmarks of his goldsmith designs. As for his facet as a painter, there is evidence that he traveled to Paris for the first time in 1865, where he went to Cabanel's workshop. On repeated occasions he visited the French capital, the epicenter of the artistic modernity of the time, where he acquired first-hand the rapid brushstrokes, luminosity and vivid chromatism of the first impressionists, features that can be seen in this magnificent painting. As can also be seen in the work presented here, Masriera had the ability to combine the freshness of the new plastic trends emerging in Paris at the time, with the long neoclassical tradition marked by the Academy: a careful dedication to drawing, the care of the composition and the rigorous study of the old masters. In fact, there is evidence that in the Louvre he devoted himself to copying the main works in order to acquire the mastery of the classics, and in Paris he participated in the Universal Exhibitions of 1867, 1878 and 1889. There is also evidence of his trips to Rome, where he began to paint Orientalist canvases. As a writer and columnist he collaborated in the magazine El Recuerdo.
In Spain, he won the second medal at the National Exhibition of Fine Arts in 1878 for the work entitled La esclava, and also exhibited his works at the Bosch Gallery in Madrid in 1882 and at the Sala Parés in Barcelona in 1889. As we observe in this exquisite painting, Masriera's technique is characterized by the perfection of the drawing, the careful composition and a color full of strength and luminosity, which is manifested especially in the iridescence of the canvases. He stood out for his preciousness full of fantasy, as well as for the freshness of his colors.