Modest Urgell
Modest Urgell i Inglada ( born June 13, 1839 in Barcelona, † April 3, 1919 ibid, also Modesto Urgell i Inglada ) was a Spanish painter and comedy writer. The picturesque work of working under the pseudonym Katúfol artist is at the transition from Realism to Impressionism. His favorite motifs belonged landscape views of his native Catalonia.
Life
Urgells artistic interest was initially the theater. However, his parents forbade him acting lessons at the Teatro de Santa Cruz in Barcelona. Instead, he began to study painting at the Escola de la Llotja at Ramon Martí i Alsina, a painter who was close to the French painters of realism. Then his parents he financed an extended stay in Paris, where he Gustave Courbet joined. Back in Spain he showed in the 1860s his works several times at exhibitions in Barcelona and Madrid, where critics rejected his work as too progressive.
1870 Urgell spent some time in Olot, where the painter Joaquim Vayreda had settled, who founded here by a model of the Barbizon school, the artist group Escola d' Olot. This association Catalan landscape painter lasting influence Urgells painting. His work is at the transition from Realism to Impressionism. As a motif he chose preferred romantic landscapes of his Catalonian homeland. In his compositions designed with economical means there are repeated secluded beaches, cemeteries and churches with a characteristic melancholy mood. Often he chose autumnal scenes in which occasionally makes a sunset for a particular color mood.
He signed some of his works with the pseudonym Katúfol and introduced from 1877 regularly in the gallery Sala Parés in Barcelona. From the mid- 1870s he repeatedly received awards at exhibitions of his paintings in Barcelona and Madrid. Even abroad, found his images recognition. So he successfully presented his work in Brussels, Paris, Berlin, Munich and Philadelphia. In addition, the Paris-based Spanish Ex - Queen Isabella II bought some of his works. From 1894 he taught as a professor of landscape painting at the Escola de la Llotja, where one of his pupils Joan Miró. His works can be found today in different Spanish museums, and the Hamburger Kunsthalle has a landscape painting of Urgell.
Urgell founded the Catalan artists and writers association Sociedad Artística y Literaria de Cataluña. As a comedy writer, he published several works. These include Turbonada (1870 ), Lluny dels ulls (1898), Un Terròs de sucre (1898), Añoranza! (1899), Por (1901 ) and Valor (1907). In addition, he brought his 1913 autobiography Memorias de una Patum out.