Catalan School, 20th century.

Catalan School, 20th century.
Landscape.
Oil on canvas.
Signed “J. Vayreda” in the lower right corner.
Measurements: 20 x 15 cm; 26 x 22 cm.
The canvas depicts a solitary landscape, with a path leading to a farmhouse. The color palette is dominated by various shades of sienna, ochre, and green. The landscape genre began to gain prominence in Catalonia during the Romantic period, particularly after a chair of landscape painting was established in 1824 at the Barcelona School of Fine Arts (the “Escola de Llotja”). In the second half of the 19th century, the influence first of the Realism of Courbet and other painters and later of the French Impressionists would foster the painting of landscapes from life, an interest in capturing atmosphere, and an increasingly free and agile brushstroke. During this second half of the century, a highly influential artistic circle would emerge: known as the Olot School, centered around the painter Joaquím Vayreda (a disciple of another important landscape painter, Ramón Martí Alsina), who transformed the Garrotxa region into a prominent center for painting and influenced numerous contemporary artists. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, various artists such as Santiago Rusiñol, Joaquín Mir, Joaquím Sunyer, and others fostered a renewal of the landscape genre in Catalonia, introducing the influence of the French Post-Impressionists.