Lovely oil painting of Gypsy Traveller family, Ramón Martí Alsina (Barcelona, ​​1826 - 1894), 19th century Catalan ...

Lovely oil painting of Gypsy Traveller family, Ramón Martí Alsina (Barcelona, ​​1826 - 1894), 19th century Catalan school
Oil on canvas, with label from the Artistic Treasure Board of the Second Republic. Measurements with frame: 72 X 52cm. Measurements without frame: 55 X 35cm. He was a Spanish realism painter. Considered the creator of the Catalan landscape school, a circle in which he developed work similar to that of Carlos de Haes, and as a teacher of the generation of painters that includes Modest Urgell, Simó Gómez, Joaquín Vayreda, Baldomero Galofré, José Luis Pellicer , Lluís Armet or Francesc Torrescassana. Born into a humble family, he lost his father at the age of eight, passing at that age under the authority of his godfather, who, under his direction, studied philosophy. He took his first steps as a painter and draftsman in the town of Mataró, where his mother's family was from. There he began to gain a reputation as a portraitist among the local bourgeoisie, his first stage being defined by a naturalistic objectivism alien to official dogmas. From that time on he began to focus on nature as a direct inspiration, going out to paint on holidays in the mountains and coasts of the El Maresme region, looking for themes for his landscapes and seascapes. Martí i Alsina shows himself in this way as an author with a fresh artistic instinct that, from his early years, manifests itself as opposed to the corsets of the prevailing officialdom. In 1848 he traveled to Paris, where he visited the Louvre and where he became familiar with the work of authors such as Horace Vernet and Eugène Delacroix. Later he will learn about the work of Gustave Courbet, the greatest international exponent of pictorial realism and the work of the Barbizon School. In 1850 he married Carlota Aguiló, a moment from which, furthermore, his career as an artist strengthened. In 1852 he obtained the chair of drawing at the Escuela de La Lonja in Barcelona, ​​and two years later he would go on to teach figure drawing. He dedicates himself to teaching, preaching realism and capturing nature, especially in landscape. He travels repeatedly to Paris and also to Holland. Attracted by positivist thought and progressive, republican and anticlerical currents, he identified with the revolutionary ideals of 1868. During the reign of Amadeo of Savoy he resigned from his teaching duties at the Ecola de la Llotja for political reasons. However, with the arrival of the First Spanish Republic and under the mandate of President Francisco Pi Margall, he was rehabilitated in his functions. The first important exhibition in which Martí i Alsina participated was the General Exhibition of Fine Arts in Barcelona in 1851. From that moment on, he participated in various exhibitions both in Barcelona and in Madrid or Paris, in several of which he was awarded. He was even invited to the 1889 World's Fair in Paris. Reference literature: Folch i Torres, Joaquim. The painter Martí i Alsina. Barcelona, ​​Municipal Board of Exhibitions, 1920; González Llácer, Jordi.