Josep Puigdengolas

JOAQUIM PUIGDENGOLAS BARELLA (Barcelona, 1906–1987).
"Landscape."
Oil on board.
Signed in the lower right corner.
With a Sala Parés label on the back.
Measurements: 33 x 46 cm; 47 x 60 cm (frame).

A landscape rendered with loose, vibrant brushstrokes, in which Puigdengolas constructs the view using broad swaths of color and a clearly horizontal compositional structure. The scene opens onto an expanse of fields and trees, with a mountain range in the background rendered in bluish, gray, and greenish tones, while the foreground combines ochres, earth tones, pinkish whites, and deep greens.

The work reveals the artist’s sensitivity to the Mediterranean landscape, captured through the atmosphere and light of the setting. The brushwork—rapid and impasto in some areas—fragments the surface into chromatic planes that lend dynamism to the composition.

Joaquim Puigdengolas was a student of Eliseo Meifrén and Joaquín Mir, two key figures in modern Catalan landscape painting. In 1951, he was appointed professor of drawing at the Sant Jordi School of Fine Arts. Throughout his career, he held solo exhibitions, such as the one organized at the Salón Cano in Madrid in 1962, and participated in competitions such as the National Fine Arts Exhibition. A few months before his death, in January 1987, he presented his final exhibition at the Sala Parés in Barcelona. His work is currently represented in the Reina Sofía Museum and at MACBA, among other collections.