Josep Armet

JOSEP ARMET PORTANELL (Barcelona, 1843 - 1911).
"Rural houses with a villager".
Oil on panel.
Signed in the lower left corner.
Size: 42 x 27 cm; 59 x 44 cm. (frame).
An outstanding painter and lithographer, Armet cultivated landscape, genre, portrait and decorative painting. He began his training at the La Lonja School of Fine Arts in Barcelona, where he was taught by Ramón Martí Alsina. In the early 1960s he moved to Rome to further his studies, where he became friends with Mariano Fortuny. He submitted works to national and local exhibitions and was awarded an honourable mention at the National Exhibition of 1864 and a third medal at the 1866 edition. He also exhibited regularly at the Sala Parés in Barcelona from 1877 onwards. In 1872 he was awarded a prize at the Official Exhibition in Le Havre, France, and in 1878 he took part in the Universal Exhibition in Paris. In the field of lithography, in 1866 he produced a series entitled "La juventud pintada por sí misma" ("Youth Painted by Itself") along the lines of Eusebio Planas, the publication of which was banned. As a decorator, it is worth mentioning the paintings he produced for the Café del Liceu in Barcelona. At first his language followed the style of the Olot School, a town to which he had moved in 1870 to escape the yellow fever, together with the painters Urgell, Caba and others, actively collaborating with his colleagues in the consolidation of the Centro Artístico Olotino (Olot Artistic Centre). For his landscapes he took sketches from life, which he then transferred to oils, filtered by artificial light. His style during these years is part of Catalan realist landscape painting, with appreciable Roman influences in his technical preciosity. However, during his last years his style evolved along lines that were linked to the work of Ramon Casas and the first Picasso. He turned his gaze towards contemporary street themes, featuring ordinary people, and his brushstrokes acquired a greater looseness and gestural sense. Josep Armet is represented in the Museo del Prado and the Museo Provincial de Girona, among other public and private collections.