Josep Mompou

JOSEP MOMPOU I DENCAUSSE (Barcelona, 1888 – Vic, 1968).
“Alp (Cerdanya),” 1948.
Oil on canvas.
Signed in the lower left corner.
Signed, titled, and dated on the reverse.
Bears a label from the Sala Parés, Barcelona.
Measurements: 61 x 51 cm; 73 x 62 cm (frame).

Dated to a period of full artistic maturity for Josep Mompou, this view of Alp demonstrates the unique synthesis of landscape observation and chromatic freedom that defines his painting. The Pyrenean architecture is rendered with loose, abbreviated brushstrokes, with barely suggested contours and a palette dominated by blues, ochres, and greens.

The work belongs to a significant phase of his career. After years of interruption due to health problems, Mompou had fully resumed his artistic activity during the 1940s; in 1947 he participated in Eugeni d’Ors’s Salón de los Once, and the following year he held a new solo exhibition at the Sala Parés, a gallery with which he maintained a long-standing relationship and whose label is still preserved on this canvas.

Josep Mompou trained at the academy of Joaquim Torres Canosa and at the Cercle Artístic de Sant Lluc, where he soon came into contact with some of the leading figures of the Catalan artistic renewal of the early 20th century. He exhibited regularly in Barcelona and Paris and participated in international shows such as the Carnegie International and the Venice Biennale. His work is represented in the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya, which holds several of the artist’s paintings, including *Cadaqués*, *Port de Sóller*, and *Baigneuse*.