The second half of the 19th century and the dawn of the 20th century saw the beginning from one of the heydays of Mallorcan painting. The artists of this period marveled at its light and landscape, and they were quick to capture both elements in their work. The arrival of the Catalan painters in Majorca Santiago Rusiñol and Joaquim Mir set the mark. the beginning of impressionism on the island.

The island of Mallorca, a source of inspiration for Catalan painters

Santiago Rusiñol found a in Mallorca not only the calm and tranquility necessary to restore his health, but all the light that his works demanded. His stay on the island was intense, and in she found herself with the landscape, composed and interpreted under its own criteria. Fascinated by its nature, its patios, its light, its water and its calm, began to grow. to express with painting his way of feel the place: in his works there are no stridencies, neither colors nor of shapes. The artist lived there an idyllic time, away from the industrial and materialistic society that caused him so much rejection. Seduced by Majorca, he returned to Spain. several times, one of them with his friend and professional colleague, Joaquim Mir.

Joaquim Mir, father of Mallorcan impressionism

For Joaquim Mir, everything in life could be reduced to color and line of a landscape. His arrival in Majorca and the discovery of its light haunted him. in such a way that it took him to focus In it, displaying an endless palette of colors, the result of his interpretation. nature staff. His brush strokes lengthened and became in spots that almost made the objects and referents disappear spaces, taking his work to the gates of abstraction, reducing the formal structure until it almost vanishes. Some of these works are have sold at online painting auctions as Balclis. Mir scored. a milestone in Mallorca, where he influenced the in such a way about the artists places that we must necessarily consider him as the father of impressionism mallorquín.

Other Catalan painters in Mallorca

Eliseo Meifrén also lived through life. a period of artistic maturity on the island. In Majorca, its skies became in a living, dynamic element, treated with a great variety of shades where greens, blues and grays predominated. Its waters and masses of clouds, Made with strong, expressive brushstrokes, they conveyed a new dynamism. Meifrén, who was in all probability the most traveler of all the painters of this time, he became a painter. however, in a very great reference in Mallorca, where he spent his life. various stages.

We cannot end without mentioning Anglada Camarasa, the epitome of of the landscape in Pollença. His island landscapes, where the artist resided over 30 years of his life, convey a harmony that makes them extraordinary. The Catalan painter lived in front of the sea, and dedicated his brushstrokes to the coast he was contemplating from his home, capturing details of the sea, rocks and trees, of the Mediterranean light and the cloudy skies of spring and autumn. The artist worked from natural observation, with little studio retouching, and transformed the studio. so his work of decorativism before an almost magical color realism. Its wake left, in addition, a flourishing school of creators, sons of the most I live post-impressionism.