Benet Mercadé

BENET MERCADÉ Y FÁBREGAS (La Bisbal, Girona, 1821 - Barcelona, 1897).
"Landscape with figure".
Oil on panel.
Signed in the lower right corner.
Measurements: 23 x 40 cm; 37 x 54 cm (frame).

Benito Mercadé will move to Barcelona and will enter the School of La Lonja in 1838, alternating his formation with the profession of ornamental painter. Later he will extend his training at the School of Fine Arts of San Fernando, in Madrid, where he was a disciple of Carlos Luis Ribera. He made his first exhibition in 1852, and a year later he settled in Madrid. In 1858 he attended the National Exhibition of Fine Arts, where he received an honorable mention. He then traveled to France, and during his stay in Paris he won the grand prize at the Paris Exhibition and first medal at the National Exhibition of Fine Arts in 1867. A few years earlier, in 1863, he had settled in Rome, but was forced to return to Barcelona for health reasons. In Barcelona he continued to work, carrying out numerous commissions for religious subjects, genre scenes and portraits. In his last years he was appointed full professor at the School of Fine Arts of Sant Jordi in Barcelona (1882), where he had as students painters of the stature of Antonio Ros i Güell. Mercadé is currently represented in the Prado Museum, the MACBA in Barcelona, and the museums of Girona and Zaragoza, among others.