Isidre Nonell

ISIDRE NONELL I MONTURIOL (Barcelona, 1873–1911).
“Portrait of a Woman,” 1909.
Red chalk on paper.
Signed and dated in the right margin.
Measurements: 50 x 33 cm; 83 x 62 cm (frame).

Many of the drawings Nonell produced throughout his artistic career depict everyday life in the streets and other public spaces of the city of Barcelona and its suburbs. One of the artist’s goals was to capture, in quick sketches, the idiosyncrasies of the various types of people who populated these scenes—their occupations, their moods, and, in many cases, their distinctive features and expressions.

This is the case with the present drawing, a fluid sketch that the artist likely made from life in 1909. In it, he depicted a young woman with gentle facial features, shown in profile to the right. Although the treatment of the figure is very schematic, some of the defining features of Nonell’s style are clearly evident in this drawing: the spontaneity and naturalness of the line, the automatic nature of the drawing process, narrative effectiveness, and formal austerity, with a certain disregard for details and anatomy in favor of facial expression and bodily gesture. On the one hand, this drawing is executed with a quick and vigorous line, drawn without hesitation. In it, the artist avoids detail and seeks maximum simplicity and descriptive effectiveness with a minimum of formal elements. Thus, with just a few lines, the figure’s pose and its distinctive features are perfectly captured: the face, the shawl, the arm resting on the table, and the dress with its wide skirt—all rendered with brief, broken, discontinuous, sketchy, and frayed-looking lines, which are very characteristic of Nonell.

A painter and draftsman, Nonell trained under Josep Mirabent, Luis Graner, and at the Martínez Altés Academy. In 1892, he exhibited at the Sala Parés, and the following year, as a member of the Academia Libre group, he took part in a group exhibition led by Rusiñol. In 1894, he participated in the Second Barcelona Fine Arts Exhibition and published drawings in *La Vanguardia*. A student at the Escuela de La Lonja in Barcelona during those years, he studied alongside Joaquín Mir, Gosé, Sunyer, and Torres-García between 1895 and 1896. In 1895, he entered the National Exhibition in Madrid for the first time, an event in which he participated several times until 1910. In 1896, he exhibited with the Colla del Safrà at the Third Barcelona Fine Arts Exhibition, where he was awarded an honorable mention. That same summer, he moved to Boí (Lleida) with Ricard Canals and Julio Vallmitjana, where he produced numerous drawings depicting cretinism, which was then endemic in the area due to endogamous practices. In the fall, Nonell exhibited these works at the “La Vanguardia” salon, and early the following year he published his drawings in “Barcelona Cómica.” Shortly thereafter, he exhibited an oil painting—also of Boí—at the 14th Exhibition at the Parés Gallery. That same year, he left for Paris, once again with Canals. In April 1897, he participated in the Salon du Champ de Mars in the French capital, and toward the end of the year, he took part in the 15th Exhibition of Impressionist and Symbolist Painters, also in Paris. In early 1898, he organized a joint exhibition with Canals at the Le Barc de Boutteville gallery. He returned months later and exhibited his sketches from Paris at Els Quatre Gats, but soon went back to the French capital. There, *La Vie Moderne* had published several of his works, and he held a solo exhibition at Ambroise Vollard’s renowned gallery (1899). After rejecting art dealer Durand Ruel’s proposal to paint “Spanish-themed works,” he returned hastily to Barcelona, apparently for personal reasons. During 1902 and 1903, he exhibited regularly at the Parés Gallery and the Barcelona Ateneo, while also submitting works to the Parisian salons. He also published drawings in “Papitu,” “L’Esquella de la Torratxa,” “La Campana de Gràcia,” “Quatre Gats,” and other publications. Respected by restless young artists, Nonell became a standard-bearer for an entire new generation of painters seeking realism and sincerity. Nonell’s works are currently represented in the Reina Sofía Museum, the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, the National Art Museum of Catalonia in Barcelona, the MAPFRE Foundation, and the Ampurdán Museum, among others.