Old painting signed Vayreda 1843-1894 Spanish school

  

Dimension 53 cm x 41 cm. Joaquim Vayreda was a Catalan painter, one of the greatest Catalan landscape artists of the 19th century. After completing his early studies in his hometown, he continued his training in Barcelona under Martí Alsina and spent time in Paris.

He founded the Artistic Center of Olot, which gave rise to what is known as the Olot School of painting. His style and approach were influenced by the Barbizon School in France, and his painting evolved toward Impressionism. At the age of nine, he began his studies under the direction of Narcís Pascual, then director of the drawing school in Olot.

Around 1860, he moved to Barcelona to study philosophy and continued his artistic training there in the studio of Ramón Martí Alsina. In 1865, he exhibited for the first time in the premises of the Society of Artists of Barcelona, and the following year he took part in an exhibition at Sala Parés.

In 1869, he founded the Artistic and Cultural Center in Olot, which would become a place of renewal and experimentation against official academicism. In 1871, he traveled to Paris for the first time and came into contact with the Barbizon School, as well as with the first Impressionists. The outbreak of the Carlist War led him into exile in France in 1872, where he remained for three years. Upon his return, he resumed the activities of the Artistic Center, and Olot became a magnet for Catalan painters, drawn by the works Vayreda exhibited at Sala Parés. The works of Joaquín Vayreda are preserved at the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, MACBA in Barcelona, the National Art Museum of Catalonia, the Víctor Balaguer Museum in Barcelona, the Girona Art Museum, and Montserrat Abbey.