Ramon Martí Alsina

RAMON MARTÍ ALSINA (Barcelona, 1826–1894).
"Still Life."
Oil on canvas.
Signed in the lower right corner.
Measurements: 69.5 x 41.5 cm; 89.5 x 62 cm (frame).

A still life featuring game, rendered with the intense materiality and luminosity characteristic of Martí Alsina’s realist style. The animals, suspended and arranged in the foreground, are depicted with dense, warm, and enveloping brushstrokes. The scene is immersed in a dark atmosphere of brown, green, and ochre tones, against which the illuminated bodies of the game stand out, rendered through delicate hallmarks of light and shadow.

Martí Alsina pays special attention to the texture of the fur, the subdued sheen of the flesh, and the earthy density of the background, creating a sober image with a powerful physical presence. The suspended figures, almost monumental within the vertical format, take on a silent gravity, while the figures at the bottom balance the composition and reinforce its character as a direct study from life.

Ramon Martí Alsina was one of the key figures of 19th-century Catalan realism and a pivotal artist in the renewal of modern Catalan painting. Trained at the Escola de la Llotja in Barcelona, he gradually moved away from academicism to develop a style of painting based on direct observation, compositional solidity, and an attention to contemporary reality. He was also a professor and exerted a significant influence on subsequent generations of artists. His work is represented in institutions such as the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya (MNAC), the Museo Nacional del Prado, the Reial Acadèmia Catalana de Belles Arts de Sant Jordi, and the Biblioteca Museu Víctor Balaguer, among other public collections.