Ramón Martí i Alsina (10 August 1826,

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

- 21 December 1894, Barcelona) was a Spanish painter in the Realistic style.

Biography

He was born to the humble family of a city official and was orphaned at the age of eight.Biography
@ the Gran Enciclopèdia Catalana He was then raised by his godfather, who was opposed to his plans to become an artist. Accordingly, he began to study philosophy (and eventually earned a bachelor's degree in that subject) but also attended night classes at the Escola de la Llotja. His first attempts at being a professional artist took place in his mother's home town of

Mataró Mataró () is the capital and largest town of the Maresme county in Catalonia, Spain. It is located on the Costa del Maresme, Maresme coast, to the south of Costa Brava, between Cabrera de Mar and Sant Andreu de Llavaneres, north-east of Barcel ...

, where he gained a modest reputation with the local bourgeoisie as a portrait painter. At this time, his primary inspiration still came from nature; spending his free time painting in the mountains and along the coast of Maresme. In 1848, he went to París, where he visited the

Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is a national art museum in Paris, France, and one of the most famous museums in the world. It is located on the Rive Droite, Right Bank of the Seine in the city's 1st arrondissement of Paris, 1st arron ...

and acquainted himself with the works of

Horace Vernet Émile Jean-Horace Vernet (; 30 June 178917 January 1863) more commonly known as simply Horace Vernet, was a French painter of battles, portraits, and Orientalist subjects. Biography Early career Vernet was born to Carle Vernet, another famo ...

and

Eugène Delacroix Ferdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix ( ; ; 26 April 1798 – 13 August 1863) was a French people, French Romanticism, Romantic artist who was regarded as the leader of the French Romantic school.Noon, Patrick, et al., ''Crossing the Channel: ...

. Later, he discovered the works of

Gustave Courbet Jean Désiré Gustave Courbet ( ; ; ; 10 June 1819 – 31 December 1877) was a French painter who led the Realism movement in 19th-century French painting. Committed to painting only what he could see, he rejected academic convention and the ...

and came under the influence of the Barbizon school.Biography
@ MCN Biografías. Four years later, he became a professor of drawing at La Llotja. He was also one of the first to introduce the concept of

plein-air ''En plein air'' (; French language, French for 'outdoors'), or plein-air painting, is the act of painting outdoors. This method contrasts with studio painting or academic rules that might create a predetermined look. The theory of 'En plein ai ...

painting to his students. His first major exhibition was at the Exposición General de Bellas Artes of Barcelona in 1851. He became a corresponding member of the Reial Acadèmia Catalana de Belles Arts de Sant Jordi in 1855.Brief biography
@ the

Museo del Prado The Museo del Prado ( ; ), officially known as Museo Nacional del Prado, is the main Spanish national art museum, located in central Madrid. It houses collections of Art of Europe, European art, dating from the 12th century to the early 20th ce ...

Difficulties

As a result of his earlier philosophical studies, he was attracted to

Positivism Positivism is a philosophical school that holds that all genuine knowledge is either true by definition or positivemeaning '' a posteriori'' facts derived by reason and logic from sensory experience.John J. Macionis, Linda M. Gerber, ''Soci ...

Republicanism Republicanism is a political ideology that encompasses a range of ideas from civic virtue, political participation, harms of corruption, positives of mixed constitution, rule of law, and others. Historically, it emphasizes the idea of self ...

and

Anti-clericalism Anti-clericalism is opposition to clergy, religious authority, typically in social or political matters. Historically, anti-clericalism in Christian traditions has been opposed to the influence of Catholicism. Anti-clericalism is related to secul ...

and identified with the ideals of the Revolution of 1868. During the reign of King Amadeo I, he resigned from La Llotja (although some sources say he was dismissed) because he wouldn't swear allegiance to the Spanish Constitution of 1869. After the declaration of the

First Spanish Republic The Spanish Republic (), historiographically referred to as the First Spanish Republic (), was the political regime that existed in Spain from 11 February 1873 to 29 December 1874. The Republic's founding ensued after the abdication of King ...

, he was among those rehabilitated by general order of President Francisco Pi y Margall. During the Seventies, his work entered what was perhaps his most creative phase while his personal life was touched by tragedy. In 1872, his son and daughter both died within a few days of each other and he lost his wife in 1878. At the same time, he went heavily into debt. This forced him to increase his artistic output, almost to the point of creating on an assembly line. He briefly had seven separate workshops open to accommodate his works in progress. Most of them were largely produced by his employees, and only the finishing touches were provided by the artist himself. Over 4,000 paintings from this period bear his signature. Eventually, in 1889, he was able to remarry, but economic problems hounded him for the rest of his life. Despite all that, a large part of his life was spent obsessed with completing his cycle of paintings on the

Peninsular War The Peninsular War (1808–1814) was fought in the Iberian Peninsula by Kingdom of Portugal, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom against the invading and occupying forces of the First French ...

and the two sieges of

Girona Girona (; ) is the capital city of the Province of Girona in the autonomous community of Catalonia, Spain, at the confluence of the Ter, Onyar, Galligants, and Güell rivers. The city had an official population of 106,476 in 2024, but the p ...

, which he had begun in 1863 with " The Great Day of Girona"; measuring an impressive 16 x 35 feet. The cycle was never completed.

Selected paintings

From the Girona Cycle

File:El setge de Girona de 1809.jpg, The

Third Siege of Girona The third siege of Girona occurred in northern Catalonia, Spain from 6 May to 12 December 1809, during the Napoleonic Wars. A significant event of the Peninsular War, France's Grande Armée lay siege to the town of Girona for seven months. Gi ...

File:Ramon Martí i Alsina - The Great Day of Girona - Google Art Project.jpg, The Great Day of Girona

Other works

File:Ramon Martí Alsina- Mar Tempestuós- 240.JPG, Stormy Sea File:Ramon Martí Alsina- Paisatge urbà- 1666.JPG, Urban Cityscape File:Ramon Martí Alsina- Paisatge- 1665.JPG, Country landscape File:Ramon Martí Alsina- Paisatge rural amb figures- 1650.JPG, Rural Landscape with Figures

References

External links

"Ramon Martí Alsina, entre la inercia romántica y la pulsión realista"
(Ramon Martí Alsina, Between Romantic Inertia and a Drive towards Realism) by Francesc M. Quílez i Corella,

Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya The (; ), abbreviated as MNAC (), is a museum of Catalonia, Catalan visual art located in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. Situated on Montjuïc hill at the end of Avinguda de la Reina Maria Cristina, near Plaça d'Espanya, Barcelona, Pl Espanya, th ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Marti Alsina, Ramon 1826 births 1894 deaths 19th-century Spanish painters 19th-century Spanish male artists Spanish male painters Painters from Catalonia Spanish Orientalist painters