Francesc Torrescassana

FRANCESC TORRESCASSANA SALLARÉS (Barcelona, 1845 - 1918).
"Boats and fishermen on the beach", 1868.
Oil on canvas.
Signed and dated in the lower left corner.
The frame has some lack of polychrome.
Measurements: 85 x 166 cm; 120 x 190 cm (frame).

In this canvas Torrescasana captures a costumbrista scene, apparently placid by the silent atmosphere, but nevertheless loaded with a contained tension. Surrounded by a luminous landscape, with delicate chromatism and captured with a tremendously expressive lyrical tone, the fishermen and their wives fish on the shore. Formally, the personal expression of the landscape stands out, with a naturalistic character, worked with a loose, agile and very impastoed brushstroke, which leaves the drawing in the background. The voluminous and pompous clouds stand out superbly in the landscape.

Francesc Torrescassana studied at the School of Fine Arts in Barcelona, where he was a disciple of Ramón Martí Alsina. In 1864 he was awarded an honorable mention at the National Exhibition in Madrid. He was granted a scholarship in Rome and later traveled to Paris, where he came into contact with the main pictorial currents of the time. On his return to Barcelona, he dedicated himself to the production of history paintings and paintings of customs. In 1869 he attended the inauguration of the Suez Canal, where he made several reportage paintings. At first his painting reflects a profound influence of his master, within a bourgeois realism. However, little by little he distanced himself from Martí Alsina's style, working with a softer and sweeter palette. In the last twenty years of his life he dedicated himself to landscapes, with a great quality of light and transparency, built on textures, where parallels with impressionism can be perceived. During these years he also worked on portraits, a genre in which the portrait of Miquel Vilaregut (1911) stands out. It was during this period that his personality and creative vivacity were reaffirmed. In 1934 a monographic exhibition of his work was dedicated to him at the Syra Galleries in Barcelona. His works are kept in the MACBA in Barcelona, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Madrid, the Museum of the Abbey of Montserrat and the Louvre in Paris, as well as in the Casa Vicens of Antonio Gaudí, in Barcelona.