Joan Vives i LLul

JOAN VIVES I LLULL (Menorca, 1901-1982).
"Coastal village".
Oil on cardboard.
It has slight damage to the frame.
Signed in the lower right corner.
Measurements: 24 x 32 cm; 48 x 56 cm (frame).
Joan Vives i Llull was a painter of Menorca, born in the bosom of a family without antecedents in the field of the plastic arts. During his childhood and youth, he only had access to drawing classes taught by the masters Francesc Hernández Sanz and Pere Pax, at a time when artistic production in Menorca was scarce. His career took a decisive turn when, leafing through the British art magazine The Studio, he came across a work by the Catalan painter Hermenegildo Anglada-Camarasa, a resident of Pollença. Impressed by his style and with the firm desire to meet him, in 1925 he moved to Mallorca. Thanks to a letter of recommendation given to him by Hernández Sanz, who had a relationship with Anglada, Vives i Llull was accepted at the master's school, known as the "Escola de Pollença". There, in an atmosphere of intense creative effervescence and surrounded by artists, he consolidated his pictorial style, centered on landscape and with a marked influence of neo-Impressionism. In this way, he became the second Menorcan painter, after Pasqual Calbó i Caldés, to receive training outside his native island.
After five years of residence in Mallorca, he returned to Menorca. From that moment on, he began a period of reclusion and artistic isolation on the island. In order to support himself economically, he worked as a drawing teacher at Maó's high school, as well as taking over the direction of the municipal school. At the same time, together with his wife Antònia Campomar, he managed a small antiques and jewelry store.
These occupations allowed him to keep his passion for drawing alive until his death in 1982. Throughout his life he held several exhibitions in Menorca and, occasionally, in cities of the Iberian Peninsula.