Hermenegildo Anglada Camarasa

HERMENEGILDO ANGLADA CAMARASA (Barcelona, 1871 – Port de Pollença, Mallorca, 1959).
“Bóquer.”
Oil on canvas.
Signed and inscribed “To my good friend Jaime Cifre, with affection” in the lower left corner.
Bibliography: Francesc Fontbona and Francesc Miralles, Anglada-Camarasa, Ediciones Polígrafa, Barcelona, 1981, p. 267, cat. no. 122.
Measurements: 45.5 x 57.5 cm.

The work is part of the significant body of Mallorcan landscapes created by Hermenegildo Anglada Camarasa after he settled in Port de Pollença in 1914, a decisive phase in his career during which the Mediterranean landscape gradually replaced the nocturnal and urban themes that had characterized his work in Paris. The Bóquer Valley and Strait thus became one of his favorite subjects—as evidenced by other compositions preserved at the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya and the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando.—reinterpreted through a deeply personal vision in which nature is transformed into a pictorial construction based on color, light, and texture.

Far from a descriptive representation of the environment, Anglada approaches the landscape from an eminently plastic perspective. The large rocky masses of Bóquer are rendered through dense, fragmented brushstrokes, transformed into a succession of chromatic planes where violets, grays, and blues structure the relief. The hallmarks of his mature artistic language are revealed by the contrasts between the luminous greens of the foreground and the pinkish tones of the horizon. These hallmarks include the ability to transform direct observation into a visual experience charged with chromatic intensity and formal rhythm.

This Mallorcan period marked a fundamental evolution in the work of Anglada Camarasa, who gradually moved away from the cosmopolitan symbolism of his French years to develop a style of painting with Mediterranean roots, linked to the tradition of the modern European landscape. His compositions from Mallorca, characterized by an exaltation of color and a subjective vision of nature, place him in dialogue with the Post-Impressionist and Fauvist movements, while always maintaining a language of his own based on material richness and chromatic freedom.

The artist’s autograph dedication adds documentary and personal value, while the inclusion of the work in the definitive monograph and catalog raisonné by Fontbona and Miralles confirms its significance within the artist’s body of work.

Trained in Barcelona under the influence of Catalan Modernism and having established himself internationally during his years in Paris, Hermen Anglada Camarasa (1871–1959) was one of the most distinctive figures in early 20th-century Spanish art. In the French capital, he achieved notable recognition within international artistic circles, alongside artists associated with the new movements of pictorial renewal, developing a style characterized by chromatic exuberance, technical freedom, and an intense pursuit of light effects.

After his arrival in Mallorca, the island became the focal point of his artistic output and a key reference point for Spanish modernist painting. His landscapes of Pollença, Bóquer, and Formentor constitute one of the most highly regarded bodies of work in his career and are now part of collections such as the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya, the Museo Nacional del Prado, the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando, and Es Baluard Museu.