69 - Catalan school of the late 19th century.

Catalan school of the late 19th century. “Boat on the Beach.” Oil on canvas. With an illegible signature in the lower right corner. Measurements: 28 x 55 cm; 62 x 84 cm (frame). Provenance: Estate of Ramon Martí Alsina and Ricard Martí Aguiló. Artistic and heritage collection originating in the legacy of Catalan painters Ramon Martí Alsina (1826–1894), a seminal figure of 19th-century Catalan Realism, and his son Ricard Martí Aguiló (1857–1935). Passed down and enriched across successive generations, the collection brings together works from the original holdings of both artists alongside acquisitions made by their descendants. Dedicated to preserving and recovering the family legacy, the descendants actively reacquired works by the painters as they entered the market, progressively expanding the collection to encompass paintings, sculptures, archaeological artifacts, and other items of artistic and historical significance. This painting depicts a landscape of great evocative power—melancholic and somber—in the style of the Catalan painter Modest Urgell (1839–1919) and his followers. However, although it shares with the master a taste for desolate landscapes with a twilight atmosphere, the approach is not so much romantic as it is realistic. In terms of composition, the view is organized into two distinctly horizontal planes, with the sky occupying as much space as the land. This pronounced horizontality accentuates the monumental scale of nature in contrast to the smallness and insignificance of man.