Gabriel Puig Roda

GABRIEL PUIG RODA (Tírig, Castellón, 1865 – Vinaròs, Castellón, 1919).
“Woman Sewing.”
Oil on panel.
Signed.
Measurements: 22 x 14 cm; 36 x 25 cm (frame).
Gabriel Puig Roda studied art at the San Carlos School of Fine Arts in Valencia, where he enrolled in 1879 thanks to a scholarship from the Castellón Provincial Council. Once again on a scholarship, he moved to Madrid to further his studies at the San Fernando School. There, he received a grant to go to Rome in 1889, where he remained until 1892. In the Italian capital, with the aim of perfecting his use of watercolor, he attended classes at the Chigi Academy and the International Circle of Fine Arts, and his work from those years shows the influence of his Italian contemporaries. By 1890, he had already gained a certain international following, to whom his agent sold panel paintings and watercolors. His first period in Rome came to an end when his scholarship expired in 1892. He then traveled to Pisa, Genoa, Milan, Padua, Venice, and Bologna, where he made sketches of landscapes and characteristic scenes that he used in his compositions. After a stay in Spain, he returned to Rome and painted “The Expulsion of the Moriscos,” a painting he sent to the Provincial Council of Valencia in 1894. His works from this period fall into two main groups: first, there are the themes influenced by Fortuny, which include genre paintings and Orientalist works. Second are the naturalist themes, such as “The Beggar with the Guitar” and “The Corregidor’s Visit,” in which Puig Roda, influenced by the literature of his time, starkly depicts scenes of everyday life from that era. After a period in Barcelona, the painter finally settled in Vinaròs in 1905, where he specialized in watercolors depicting local customs. A significant collection of his works was donated by his children in 1975 to the Provincial Council of Castellón de la Plana, intended for the future Provincial Museum of Fine Arts. Today, an international watercolor competition bearing his name is held in Vinaròs.