José Armet

JOSÉ ARMET PORTANELL (Barcelona, 1843-1911).
Untitled.
Oil on canvas. Relined.
Signed in the lower right corner.
Measurements: 55 x 74 cm (frame).
Spanish painter and lithographer, José Armet Portanell cultivated the thematic of landscape, genre, portrait and decorative painting. He trained at the School of Fine Arts of La Lonja in Barcelona, where he was a disciple of Ramón Martí Alsina. In the early 1860s he moved to Rome to further his studies, where he became friends with Mariano Fortuny. Among his lithographic production, the series of 1866 entitled "La juventud pintada por sí misma" (Youth painted by itself) stands out. He sent his works to national and local exhibitions, obtaining an honorable mention in the National Exhibition of 1864 and third medal in the edition of 1866, for the canvas Países; he also exhibited regularly in the Sala Parés in Barcelona. In 1878 he sent the work entitled A Landscape of Catalonia to the Universal Exhibition of Paris. As a decorator, the ornamentation of the ceilings that he made for the Café del Liceo in Barcelona stands out. In 1870 he participated, together with Modesto Urgell, Antonio Caba and José Luis Pellicer, in the consolidation of the Artistic Center of Olot, founded by the landscape painter Joaquín Vayreda in 1870. His work is included in the Catalan realist landscape painting with Roman influences for its precious technique. The brushstroke is agile and dynamic, with small touches often loaded with matter. Armet's works were highly appreciated by the painting collectors of his time, and, in addition to private collections, they are preserved today, for example, in the National Museum of Art of Catalonia.