110 - Early 20th-century Catalan school.

Early 20th-century Catalan school. “Calas,” Cadaqués. Pair of oil paintings on panel. One of them is illegibly signed, dated, and georeferenced. Measurements: 14 x 36 cm; 17 x 39 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 pair of landscapes is part of the tradition of Catalan realist landscape painting that developed between the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when the depiction of nature gradually moved away from the idealized and theatrical vision of Romanticism to focus on direct observation of the environment, the capture of light, and atmospheric truth. In these works, the Mediterranean coastline takes center stage, depicted through rocky shores, coves, boats, and expansive marine horizons—motifs particularly cherished by Catalan landscape painters of the period.