Modest Urgell Inglada

MODEST URGELL INGLADA (Barcelona, 1839 - 1919).
"Landscape with figure and hermitage".
Oil on canvas glued to board.
Signed in the lower right corner.
Measurements: 38 x 46 cm; 52 x 46 cm (frame).
In this work we can appreciate one of the most characteristic atmospheres of Urgell's production, a silent, melancholic and deeply evocative landscape. The composition presents a small isolated hermitage in the middle of an almost uninhabited environment, accompanied only by a female figure that advances slowly along the path, accentuating the sensation of solitude and seclusion. Urgell constructs the scene with a palette of muted tones and a twilight light that envelops the landscape in a poetic and spiritual atmosphere. The humble architecture of the hermitage and the amplitude of the open space reinforce the feeling of introspection and mystery so characteristic of his painting.
Modest Urgell began his artistic career as a theater actor, although he soon abandoned that vocation to devote himself to painting. He trained at the La Lonja School in Barcelona under the teaching of Ramón Martí Alsina and later traveled to Paris, where he came into contact with the realism of Gustave Courbet. In 1870 he settled in Olot and, influenced by Joaquín Vayreda, he definitively oriented his work towards landscape.
Urgell developed a very personal style centered on solitary landscapes and seascapes, often featuring cemeteries, hermitages and twilight scenes full of melancholy and mystery. Far from the luminous and friendly vision of the Mediterranean landscape, his paintings convey solitude, silence and a deeply evocative atmosphere.
He was a landscape teacher at the School of Fine Arts of Sant Jordi in Barcelona since 1896 and an academic since 1902. He participated in numerous national and international exhibitions, obtaining important recognitions, especially in 1892, when he was awarded in several European competitions. In addition to painting, he cultivated literature and theater, interests that he expressed in his album Catalunya (1905), and his work is represented in important institutions such as the Prado Museum and the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, among many other museums and collections.