Alexandre de Riquer

ALEXANDRE DE RIQUER INGLADA (Calaf, Barcelona, 1856 - Palma de Mallorca, 1920).
"Printing proof of the Ex-libris of Emilio de Riquer", 1907.
Photogravure on paper.
Signed and dated on plate.
Measurements: 37 x 38 cm; 43 x 43 cm (frame).

In 1907 Alexandre de Riquer designed an ex-libris for Emilio de Riquer. So far the original drawing made by Alexandre de Riquer (which is in a private collection) was known, but no reproduction of it in any format was known. This ex-libris was made from the poster project of "Mosaicos Hidráulicos Órsola Solá y Cía" made in 1989.

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.