Alexandre de Riquer

ALEXANDRE DE RIQUER INGLADA (Calaf, Barcelona, 1856 - Palma de Mallorca, 1920).
"The four seasons", 1899-1900.
Set of four lithographic posters.
Signed and dated on plate.
Reference bibliography: Marc Martí, "Alexandre de Riquer. Obra gràfica", Barcelona, Marc Martí, 2006, p. 130-133.
Measurements: 115 x 56.5 cm; 135 x 76 cm (each).

Set of four lithographic posters made by Alexandre de Riquer between 1899 and 1900 and printed at the Pierrefort workshop in Paris. Alexandre de Riquer was commissioned in 1897 by Mrs. Alomar to decorate the interior of a salon in a house on Paseo de Gracia in Barcelona. The decoration included four large panels of 176 x 114 cm where the four seasons were represented. Alexandre de Riquer was so pleased with the result that he decided to use these works to make lithographic posters printed by the printer Pierrefort in Paris in 1900. Alphonse Mucha, one of the fathers of international poster art, had already produced in 1896 a collection of four posters on "The Four Seasons".

Of Riquer's production, very few copies were produced because they were not advertising posters to be hung in the streets, but a run of decorative posters. Of these very few copies have reached our days, so it is very difficult to obtain the complete set of The Four Seasons. In fact, there is no public institution in this country that has copies of this artistic production, so important in Alexandre de Riquer's career as an illustrator. This work, along with other posters that he produced, have positioned Alexandre de Riquer as one of the most sought-after international poster artists, along with Alphonse Mucha, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and Cassandre.

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.