Catalan Painting from Naturalism to Noucentisme

The 66 works selected for the temporary exhibition offer the public the opportunity to analyse the origins and development of modern Catalan painting, with works dating from the mid-19th to the early 20th century. The exhibition opens with a section dedicated to the Romantic and naturalist landscape, considered the first chapter in the history of modern art in Catalunya. This movement focused primarily on landscape as its subject and looked to Romanticism as its inspiration. One of the key figures in this movement was Martí Alsina, represented here by four works. According to Tomàs Llorens, Chief Curator of the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum and responsible for the selection of works in the exhibition, “Interestingly, Romanticism was both the starting point but also the conclusion of this type of naturalist landscape”. Corbera de Llobregat, an important landscape by Llouis Rigalt featured in the present exhibition, is a key example of this relationship between the two movements.