Alexandre de Riquer

ALEXANDRE DE RIQUER INGLADA (Calaf, Barcelona, 1856 - Palma de Mallorca, 1920).
Photographic plate used by Alexandre de Riquer for the realization of his works of art, ca. 1896.
Photographic prints on paper.
Measurements: 22 x 29,5 cm; 29 x 36 cm (frame).

These unpublished photographic plates, which served as a source of inspiration for the creation of many of the illustrations and works of art, were hung in Alexandre de Riquer's studio. All the plates have the marks in the corners of the holes Alexandre de Riquer made to hang them on the wall.

These plates form a necessary set to understand how the artist worked and how he created his magnificent compositions. They are, in addition, graphic documents of great value since it is very difficult to find cases where this material (which served as inspiration to the artists) has been preserved and has reached our days.

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.