Alexandre de Riquer

ALEXANDRE DE RIQUER INGLADA (Calaf, Barcelona, 1856 - Palma de Mallorca, 1920).
"Tarragona. Cullin Fruita", ca. 1900.
Pencil and ink drawing on paper.
Signed in the lower right corner.
Measurements: 23 x 9 cm; 44 x 30 cm (frame).

Project for a decorative plafond on Tarragona in which a woman is seen picking fruit and with a basket with the typical vineyard of the whole area of Tarragona.

On the left side of the drawing there are some annotations in pencil written by Alexandre de Riquer in which it says "Tarragona, cullin fruita", written in Catalan not yet standardized (Tarragona, collecting fruit).

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.