Joan Roig Soler

JOAN ROIG SOLER (Barcelona, 1852-1909).
"Plaça de l'esglèsia".
Oil on panel.
Signed in the lower right corner.
With label of Barrachina i Ramoneda on the back.
Measurements: 27 x 40 cm; 62,5 x 73 cm (frame).
Joan Roig Soler began his training with Modest Urgell and later completed his apprenticeship traveling to the great capitals of art, Paris and Rome. Closely linked to Sitges, in this town he initiated, together with Arcadi Mas i Fondevila, the informal Catalan Luminist School. Devoted to landscape, he cultivated the coastal environments of Blanes, Tossa, Cadaqués, Mallorca, etc., but also the urban landscape (Barcelona, etc.) and the Pyrenees. His work clearly shows his concern for light and his desire to break with the pictorial lyricism of the time. He practiced a style close to impressionism that preceded the modernism of Santiago Rusiñol and Ramón Casas, who contacted Sitges thanks to him. He exhibited in Barcelona, Madrid, Paris, etc. He was distinguished with the Third Medal at the National Fine Arts Exhibition of 1887, obtaining awards at the Paris (1895), Barcelona (1896) and Zaragoza Exhibitions. He is represented in the collections of the Museums of Modern Art of Barcelona and Madrid.