Lluis Rigalt

LLUIS RIGALT I FARRIOLS (Barcelona, 1814 - 1894).
"Landscape with figures", 1887.
Oil on panel.
Signed with initials and dated in the lower right corner.
Measurements: 18 x 34 cm, 32 x 47 cm (frame).

Painter, decorator and draftsman, son of the painter and heraldist Pablo Rigalt i Fargas, Lluís Rigalt specialized in landscape painting. He studied at the La Lonja School in Barcelona and, apparently, also in Madrid with Jenaro Pérez Villamil. In 1841 he accidentally replaced his father in his classes at La Lonja, where he would later become a teacher of perspective and landscape, beginning in 1845 (confirmed in 1850). From 1847 he participated in the Fine Arts Exhibitions of Barcelona, and in 1858 he was awarded an honorable mention in the National Exhibition of Madrid, for the painting entitled "Recuerdos de Cataluña" (Memories of Catalonia). As an illustrator, he made in 1857 an "Álbum enciclopédico pintoresco de artes industriales", and in 1863 some "Cartapacios de dibujo para uso de las escuelas de instrucción primaria". He also illustrated the works "España pintoresca" and "Historia de Cataluña". His drawings of the tomb for the funeral of Martínez de la Rosa, erected in the cathedral of Barcelona, as well as those of the sword of honor given to General O'Donnell by the Catalan provinces in 1862, also stand out. In addition, he made decorations such as the paintings for the rooms where Queen Isabel II stayed in Barcelona in 1845, as well as those of the Santa Cruz theater, also in his hometown. In 1885 he traveled to Paris with the commission to install the works of art presented by Spain at the Paris Exposition, and once there he was fascinated by the attitude of the landscape painters of the Barbizon School. Lluís Rigalt was director of the La Lonja School between 1877 and 1878, representing a more advanced position than that of his predecessor Claudio Lorenzale because, although he was still a romantic like the Nazarenes, he did not participate in their mystical archaeology, but approached nature directly. In addition to being a professor in Barcelona, he was an academician of merit at the San Fernando University in Madrid, and through his teaching work, as well as that of his father, landscape began to enjoy great consideration in Catalonia, despite the fact that until then it had been a little cultivated and scarcely appreciated genre in Spain. He cultivated a very elaborate landscape painting, mythologizing nature and often centered on romantic ruins, and also stood out for his numerous drawings, which often reproduced monuments and corners condemned to disappear with the urban reform of Barcelona. He also drew rural landscapes of Bañolas, el Maresme, Blanes, Lloret, Tossa, Martorell, etc. He is currently represented in the Prado Museum, in the Academy of Fine Arts of Sant Jordi and in the MACBA and the Museum of History of the City of Barcelona, among other important public and private collections.