Alexandre de Riquer

ALEXANDRE DE RIQUER INGLADA (Calaf, Barcelona, 1856 - Palma de Mallorca, 1920).
"Proofs of negative engraving for the Círculo Artístico de Barcelona", 1909.
Measurements: 32.5 x 25.5 cm (etching proof); 26.5 x 17 cm (etching proof with colors reversed); 41 x 55 cm (frame).

Pair of proofs made by Alexandre de Riquer for the realization of the engraving on the occasion of the Artistic Circle of Barcelona in 1909. One of the final engravings used with this motif is preserved in the MNAC. These are the previous versions. The print has some corrections made by Alexandre de Riquer in pencil where he adds the need for the model's hair to be more abundant in order to fill the composition more. The inverted color proof already shows these updated changes. The metal plate with the final etching is embedded in a piece of furniture that the Artistic Circle of Barcelona gave as a gift to the President of the Government Antonio Maura and that is conserved in the Antonio Maura Foundation in Madrid.

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.