Modest Urgell

MODEST URGELL INGLADA (Barcelona, 1839 - 1919).
"Village street".
Oil on canvas.
Signed in the lower right corner.
Measurements: 34 x 21 cm; 47 x 34 cm (frame).

This painting by Modest Urgell shows a lonely street of a small town, represented with the usual mixture of sober realism and melancholic lyricism that defines the artist's work.

The composition is organized in depth, with a cobblestone street of pebbles flanked by whitewashed houses with irregular walls and reddish roofs. The narrowness of the road and the shadows that envelop the foreground give the scene an intimate and silent tone. The intense blue sky contrasts with the gloom of the street.

Modest Urgell began his career as a theatrical actor, but the family's prohibition to follow that path led him to devote himself to painting. He studied at the Escuela de La Lonja in Barcelona, where he was a disciple of Ramón Martí Alsina, and later spent some time in Paris, where he met Gustave Courbet and became a follower of realism. During the sixties, his works were rejected in the official exhibitions of Madrid and Barcelona. In 1870 he moved to Olot, where he became acquainted with Joaquín Vayreda, creator of the local landscape school. From then on, Urgell decided to devote himself fully to landscape painting. His work will focus on solitary natures and seascapes, often starring hermitages and cemeteries, marked by a twilight, desolate and mysterious atmosphere. His landscapes have an atmosphere, a color and themes that deny the stereotype of the Mediterranean landscape, based on warm and friendly natures, of brilliant chromaticism, like open windows to the southern sensuality. Urgell is represented in the Prado Museum, the National Art Museum of Catalonia, the Maritime Museum of Barcelona, the Kunsthalle of Hamburg, the Víctor Balaguer Museum of Vilanova i la Geltrú, the Art Funds of the Caixa Sabadell and the Caixa d'Estalvis de Terrassa, the Dalí Museum in Figueras and the Provincial Museums of Girona, Palma de Mallorca and Lugo, among many other centers and institutions.