Román Ribera

ROMÁN RIBERA CIRERA (Barcelona, 1848 - 1935).
"Female portrait.
Oil on canvas.
Signed in the lower right corner.
Size: 38,5 x 30 cm; 55 x 46 cm (frame).
In this work Román Ribera shows us a lady elegantly dressed with a costume in which the bluish tonalities predominate. Thus, we see a naturalistic portrait, with the lady in the foreground, with a long bust, standing out against a neutral background worked with a loose, lively, vibrant brushstroke, of great expressive power despite its soft tones. In capturing the character's face, the brushstroke becomes more controlled, although without losing any of its ease, revealing the artist's great mastery of his craft. The young woman's face, with its flushed cheeks and full lips, is particularly outstanding.
A Catalan painter, Román Ribera studied drawing at the La Lonja School in Barcelona and painting at Pere Borrell's academy. He furthered his studies in Rome between 1873 and 1976, and travelled and exhibited in London. In the Italian capital he attended the Accademia Chigi and devoted himself to painting, but avoiding the contagion of the academicist mannerism of the Roman school. In 1877 he went to Paris with the art dealer Adolphe Goupil, who had acquired the rights to reproduce all his work. There he continued his training, this time directly studying scenes of Parisian street life. A year later he took part in the Universal Exhibition in Paris, where he achieved a decisive success with his three works of remarkable literary verism. However, he did not quite feel at ease with this type of subject matter and soon began to focus on depicting the elegant life of the period in works such as "Exit from the Ball", which he alternated with genre scenes in the Spanish Baroque tradition such as "A Flemish Drinker". In 1881 he took part in the National Exhibition in Madrid with precisely the aforementioned work with a Baroque setting, and in 1883 he was awarded the Encomienda de Isabel la Católica. After twelve years in Paris he returned to Barcelona, where he had already exhibited at the Centro de Acuarelistas (1885) and at the recently inaugurated Sala Parés. He then exhibited his work at the Artistic and Literary Association and at the Parés and Rovira halls, as well as at the Universal Exhibition of 1888 and the Fine Arts Exhibition of 1894, obtaining great critical and public success and soon won the favour of the wealthy Catalan bourgeoisie. In 1893 he submitted two paintings to the exhibition organised by the Barcelona Athenaeum: "Innocence" and "Incógnitca". Cirera regularly exhibited his work individually in the Rovira room and as a group in the Artistic and Literary Society of Catalonia. He was a member of various official juries, and also of the Barcelona Museum Board in 1901. In 1915 he was appointed Member of Merit of the Artistic Circle of Barcelona. On his return to Spain Ribera continued to depict the life of the upper classes, the luxury of their homes, the richness of their costumes, etc., becoming a faithful portraitist of the Catalan upper middle classes of the Restoration, as he had already been of the French bourgeoisie of the Third Republic. He worked mainly in Barcelona, but also travelled to Madrid and held exhibitions of his work there. His work is currently held in the MACBA in Barcelona, the Museu d'Art de Girona, the Museu de Montserrat, the Biblioteca Víctor Balaguer and in various important private collections.