Ricardo Opisso

RICARDO OPISSO I SALA (Tarragona, 1880 - Barcelona, 1966).
"In the cafe" and "In the pharmacy".
Pair of drawings.
Pencil and charcoal on paper.
Signed.
Measurements: 12 x 7 cm (each); 26 x 30 cm (frame).

Ricardo Opisso was an acute observer of the daily life and urban types of his time. In this pair of small drawings the artist captures, with his characteristic agile and expressive stroke, scenes of an intimate character starring a bourgeois couple.

Linked to the modernist environment of Barcelona, Opisso worked as an apprentice of Antoni Gaudí in the Sagrada Familia and soon after joined the Círculo Artístico de Sant Lluc, exhibiting in the Sala Parés. He frequented the environment of Els Quatre Gats, along with artists such as Ramon Casas, Isidre Nonell and Pablo Picasso, and in 1901 he traveled to Paris.

He collaborated as an illustrator in magazines such as Cu-cut! and L'Esquella de la Torratxa. After the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera he abandoned political satire and turned to genre scenes, especially crowds in popular environments in Barcelona. He exhibited regularly since the thirties and achieved notable success in the post-war period. His work is mainly preserved in the Opisso Museum in Barcelona and also in the MNAC, among other institutions.