Dionís Baixeras

DIONÍS BAIXERAS VERDAGUER (Barcelona, 1862 - 1943).
"Shepherds".
Oil on canvas.
Signed in the lower corner.
Attached to the back a label of the Parés room in Barcelona.
Measurements: 138 x 198 cm.
In this country scene, Baixeras offers us a costumbrista image devoid of all folkloric eagerness. On the contrary, he captures the daily moment charged with simplicity, but also with poetry. A couple of peasants are immersed in the sacred calm of the sunset, in a magical silence that seems to be palpable and is only interrupted by the course of the river. All of this is resolved with his characteristic round and thick brushstrokes.
A disciple at the Escuela de la Lonja of Martí Alsina and, above all, of Antonio Caba, during his student years Baixeras received the nickname of "the medal winner", due to his ease in winning competitions. He exhibited for the first time in 1882, at the Sala Parés in Barcelona, and four years later he traveled to Paris, where he was enthusiastic about the peasant-themed realism of Millet and Bastien-Lepage. During these years he won awards at the Fine Arts Exhibitions of Madrid (1884, third medal) and Paris (1886, honorable mention). Back in Barcelona he made great compositions of historical character, like those of the auditorium of the university (1888), those of the seminary (1904, destroyed in 1936) and those of the dome of the hall of Sant Jordi of the Generalitat (1928). In 1907 he made a series of drawings of documentary type, focused on the representation of the corners of Barcelona that would disappear with the construction of the Via Layetana, which earned him a prize from the City Council. In 1926 he joined the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of Sant Jordi, and was linked to the Artistic Circle of Sant Lluc since its foundation. During his last years he wrote some interesting memoirs, the original manuscript of which is currently preserved in the Academy of Sant Jordi. Baixeras devoted himself mainly to naturalistic painting, with marine or rural themes, in works that show a certain influence of the school of Olot. He meticulously elaborated his works in the workshop, so his previous drawings have much more freshness and interest. In 1908 he made a collection of drawings, of great documentary value, of places in old Barcelona that were to disappear during the construction of the Via Layetana. His work is preserved in the Metropolitan of New York, the Museum of Art and Industry of Roubaix (France) and the MACBA, among others.