19th-20th century Spanish

A Catalan painter from the second generation of Modernistas, Ricard Canals was a member of the collective known as La Colla del Safrà (Saffron Group), which owed its name to the abundance of yellow and ochre tones used by its members in their paintings: Isidre Nonell (1872-1911), Joaquim Mir (1873-1940), Ramón Pichot (1871-1925), Joaquim Sunyer (1874-1956), Adrià Gual (1872-1943) and Juli Vallmitjana (1873-1937).

From 1890 onwards Canals worked for the art dealer Charles Durand-Ruel, and exhibited his work in the latter’s gallery in New York.

Together with Nonell, Canals went on many plein air sketching expeditions around the orchards of Sant Martí and Montjuïc. In 1897, the two artists travelled together to Paris. Canals soon found his place there, and he met the Impressionists Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919) and Édouard Manet (1832-1883), who would exert a deep influence on his painting.

Canals travelled to Granada and Seville to document his works while in Madrid he was deeply moved by the painting of Francisco de Goya (1746-1828).

This Catalan artist was one of the promoters of Les Arts i els Artistes, a group in the orbit of

 Noucentisme 

a term coined by Eugenio d’Ors to name a cultural movement which many scholars regard as the most interesting in Spanish twentieth century art. Its members were highly prepared intellectually, pro-European and appreciated the form, rejecting improvisation and embracing the notion of “a job well done.” They were also known for their eschewal of sentimentality, their quest for purity and extolling of the urban world, as opposed to the ruralism prevailing among the members of the Generation of ’98, and, in short, for their elitism and self-awareness of aesthetic, social and intellectual avant-gardism.

and the driving force behind many exhibitions at the time.

Canals’ practice evolved over the years. During his early period alongside Nonell, his works mostly depicted life on the outskirts of the city. Once in Paris he found success with works focused on Andalusian picturesqueness. Later, back in Barcelona, he changed his subject matter and worked mostly with portraiture and it was precisely one of his portraits that earned him a First Medal at the 1911 Barcelona Exposition.

Ricard Canals’ works are in the collections of Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Museu Nacional d´Art de Catalunya and the Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection.