Modest Urgell Inglada

MODEST URGELL INGLADA (Barcelona, 1839 - 1919).
"Landscape with figure at sunset".
Oil on canvas.
Signed in the lower right corner.
Measurements: 46 x 61 cm; 62 x 78 cm (frame).
This scene reflects the most recognizable characteristics of the artist: silent horizons, abandoned architectures, stylized cypresses and a twilight atmosphere full of mystery and recollection. Rather than describing a specific place, Urgell seeks to convey a mood marked by solitude, the passage of time and contemplation. The delicate gradation of pink and ochre lights in the sky contrasts with the deep shadows in the foreground, creating a sense of melancholic calm that is very characteristic of his painting. Far from the luminous Mediterranean landscape, Urgell developed an intimate and evocative language that turned his works into one of the most personal expressions of the symbolist and romantic landscape in Spain.
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. He was a landscape teacher at the School of Fine Arts of Sant Jordi in Barcelona from 1896 and an academic from 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).
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.