Alexandre de Riquer

ALEXANDRE DE RIQUER INGLADA (Calaf, Barcelona, 1856 - Palma de Mallorca, 1920).
"Modernist lady with dandelion", ca. 1900.
Pencil and ink drawing on paper for magazine illustration or illustrated book.
Signed in the lower corner A de Riquer "Alexandre de Riquer".
Measurements: 32.5 x 27 cm; 53 x 46 cm (frame).

Original drawing used for the realization of an engraving. It has been preserved in a private collection a copy of this very rare engraving made by Alexandre de Riquer and the metal plate used for the realization of the same. The composition shows a beautiful woman blowing a dandelion. It shows 3 proposals with which Alexandre de Riquer could modify the composition of the face using the same image of the body. Many times what Riquer did to create new works was to turn the work horizontally to create a new one that did not resemble the original at first glance.

This drawing was the starting point for the realization of this engraving, Josep Monsalvatge's 1905 bookplate with which he took the same composition and modified the dandelion for a book. It was also the source of inspiration for an oil painting entitled "The Nymph" also kept in a private collection.

Drawer, painter and poet, de Riquer began his studies in Manresa and Languedoc, France. Back in Barcelona, he completed his training with Tomás Padró and Antoni Caba, at La Lonja. He then travels to Paris and London, being of special importance his contact in England with Japonism, Pre-Raphaelism and the Arts & Crafts movement. Influenced by figures such as William Morris, he embodied the Pre-Raphaelite ideal: artist, craftsman and poet united in the same man. He founded a furniture workshop, made designs for decorative arts and collaborated as a draftsman and poet with the most prominent publications of Catalan modernism. He also introduced the art of ex-libris in Catalonia, a discipline in which he achieved worldwide fame. He participated in numerous exhibitions and expositions, obtaining first medals in the Universal of Barcelona (1888), the National of Madrid (1906) and the Universal of Chicago (1893). Riquer is represented in the Prado Museum, the National Art Museum of Catalonia, the Ateneo of Barcelona, the Cau Ferrat and the Diocesan Museum of Barcelona, among many others.