Segundo Matilla

SEGUNDO MATILLA (Madrid, 1862 – Teià, Barcelona, 1937).
“Port Lligat.”
Oil on cardboard.
Signed and dated in the lower right corner. Titled on the reverse.
Measurements: 21.5 x 27.5 cm; 50 x 52 cm (frame).

Although born in Madrid, Matilla trained and pursued his career in Barcelona. He studied at the Barcelona School of Fine Arts under the guidance of Antonio Caba. A leading figure in Spanish Impressionism, he participated in numerous exhibitions and official competitions held in Barcelona, such as the group shows organized by the Círculo Artístico (1895), the International Exhibitions of 1891, 1894, 1896, and 1898 (honorable mention in 1891), and the Art Exhibitions of 1918 and 1919. In 1897, he received an honorable mention at the National Fine Arts Exhibition in Madrid for his painting “Lavanderas de Galicia.” He also exhibited his work in Paris, participating in shows such as the 1897 Salon des Artistes Français. Notable among his solo exhibitions were those held at the Salón Vilches in Madrid and, in Barcelona, at the Sala Parés (beginning in 1907) and the Galerías Pallarés (1942), the latter being a posthumous tribute. Several of the works exhibited there were purchased by the Museum of Modern Art in Madrid, and many others were exported to the Americas. His extensive exhibition (one hundred and fifty works) held at the Sala Parés in 1914 was particularly successful, receiving unanimous praise from critics of the time. The following year, he exhibited at the Salón Vilches in Madrid, where all the works on display were sold. He achieved great success with both the public and critics thanks to his landscapes of the Ampurdán, Camprodón, Port de la Selva, and Cadaqués. A painter endowed with astonishing skill, a strong personality full of sensitivity, mastery of drawing and painting technique, and an overflowing capacity for work, Segundo Matilla was an excellent painter who worked in absolutely every genre; he was a great landscape and seascape artist, painted high-quality portraits—especially of figures from the entertainment world—and his flower still lifes and still lifes were also highly regarded. His bullfighting-themed paintings, executed with great spontaneity and brimming with movement, demonstrate his deep passion for the art of Cúchares. Within the landscape genre, Matilla showed a predilection for twilight hours, in the style of Eliseo Meifrèn. His paintings were always entirely accessible and free of any kind of intellectual complexity, completely disregarding all the artistic movements of his time. Segundo Matilla was also a mentor to prominent painters of the next generation, notably his nephew, Joaquim Terruella, and Antoni Rosell Altamira. His work is currently on display in various museums, such as the aforementioned Museum of Contemporary Art in Madrid, the Prado Museum (works on loan to the Economic Tribunal of the Central Administration and the Municipal Museum of Málaga), the Pablo Gargallo Museum in Zaragoza, and the National Art Museum of Catalonia, as well as in major international private collections.