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Beginnings:
As a painter, Riquer
developed an important body of work consisting largely of oils and
watercolors with natural and allegorical motifs, the most notable of which
are his landscapes and religious themes. Among the latter, his San Julià
Hospitalari,
Annunciation,
and St. Francis and the Birds are worth special mention.
Riquer displayed his oils and watercolors in several exhibitions, and in
1890 he organized his first solo exhibition, at the Sala Parés in Barcelona,
where he showed 25 oils depicting various themes including realistic
landscapes full of birds, flowers, forests, and other natural elements.
Influences
and Pictorial Motifs:
The
English Pre-Raphaelites exerted a profound influence on Riquer. During that
era, his style evolved from an iconographic phase based on the themes
mentioned above toward a more idealistic phase dominated by images of saints
and the Virgin Mary and a general cult of feminine purity visible in his
Entre Illiris (1890),
Divina Pastora (1891), and Annunciation (1893). Upon his
second marriage, at the age of 54 to the French writer Marguerite Laborde (Andrée
Béarn), Riquer entered French artistic circles and regained his interest in
the
landscape,
painting Pyrenean forests, some of which were exhibited in Pau in 1912.
Exhibitions:
Between 1912 and
1913, Riquer held three exhibitions in the Sala Parés and Sala Fayans Català,
displaying landscapes of Andalusia, Mallorca, and Ibiza, where he had
recently visited. In April 1915, he organized another, larger exhibition at
the Fayans Català Exhibition Hall in Barcelona. This exhibition was divided
into four sections: Spain - inspired by Goya and Romanticism -, Ibiza and
Mallorca - landscapes -, Pyrenees - fresh, realistic landscapes of the
French Pyrenees, and Miscellaneous - reflections on the world of literary
and musical allusions-. This exhibition enjoyed great public and critical
acclaim, but Riquer sought peace to reduce the tension he found himself
suffering for a variety of reasons, among which was the triumph of the
Noucentisme movement. For this reason, he returned to Mallorca and dedicated
himself again to landscapes.
The changes brought by Noucentisme - which Riquer energetically criticized
for its poverty of style - resulted in a sharp decline in commissions for
Art Nouveau
works
(with the exception of
bookplates),
so much so that Riquer considered moving to Argentina.
The end of Art Nouveau:
Between 1906 and
1911, Noucentisme completely marginalized Art Nouveau. Eliseu Trenc has
considered this stylistic evolution and contends that the severest decline
was in the decorative arts; therefore Riquer concentrated on poetry and
literature, with the usual pantheistic exaltation of nature.
His paintings from this period can be divided into three geographic
categories:
1) Catalonia and Spain 1907-1912,
2) the Pyrenees 1912-1914, and
3) Mallorca and Ibiza, 1917 until Riquer’s death in 1920.
Although between 1908 and 1910, we find paintings of exoticized fauns,
satyrs, and nymphs, Riquer’s preference for landscapes was clearly growing.
The line disappears from his canvases, and his forms are created using a
spatula or paintbrush.
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In Mallorca:
Finally,
in 1917 Riquer installed himself in Palma de Mallorca, where he organized
exhibitions at the Círculo Mallorquin in April 1918 and May 1919, and at La
Veda in January 1920; these exhibitions were especially enjoyed by the more
conservative sectors of the islands.
In 1920, shortly before his death, Riquer still found time to display his
Mallorcan landscapes at the Casino Sabadellenc in Sabadell, again at the
Sala Parés in Barcelona, and also in Paris, at the Salon d'Automne. These
late exhibitions give some idea of the vitality Riquer possessed until his
final moments.
Death came to Alexandre de Riquer on Mallorca at the age of 64, on that
island with the memory of his homeland, his childhood, and his youth which
were his deepest passions. |
