Lot #0153: Alfreddo Opisso Cardona. 1907-1980 signed pencil sketch of circus performer.

Alfred Opisso Cardona. Signed Sketch of showgirl. Opisso was greatly influenced by Toulouse Lautrec. Canvas measures 13 inches by 19 inches. Frame measures 21 inches by 26 inches. The artist was born in Barcelona. In that city he studied at the Escola de Belles Arts. His work is characterized as being in the "Catalan Modernist Style".Barcelona 1907 Matar 1980Alfred Opisso, an excellent sketcher and accomplished painter, was born in Barcelona at the height of the noucentista movement, though he lived in Matar until 1947. He made a name for himself in the world of art as a pencil portrait artist, works in which he demonstrated outstanding elegance and quality, and as an artist of fine oil paintings, in which he revealed his favourite themes: magical scenes at the circus, the atmosphere of Paris, in the manner of Toulouse-Lautrec, bohemian caf life, scenes with children and every possible genre of the female figure. The repetition of these themes in countless different forms, none of them routine or boring, is evidence of his great gifts.He was, however, born into a family that was professionally dedicated to art, which meant that his qualities were over-shadowed. He was the son of the popular sketcher Ricard Opisso and the grandson on his mothers side of the famous painter Joan Carmona. Other artistic forebears include his aunt Regina Opisso, his grandfather Alfred Opisso and his great-grandfather Felip Jacint Sala, all of whom were writers. Another uncle, Emili Sala, a descendent of Pere Pau Montanya, was also a noted painter. Even so, he managed to reach his full creative maturity and to find a form of expression of his own.The clean style, visual attractiveness and confident line of Ciclistes denotes a talent for drawing and an exquisite accomplishment that have resulted in a painting of great simplicity with elegance as its fundamental virtue. The work is an example of the artists markedly individual style and of his preferred palette of primary colours. The rhythm of the composition is determined by these victorious athletes, their movement repeated by the spectators in the tiered seating, each painted individually in the form of a different patch of colour. Opisso painted this setting in keeping with his warm personality, creating a sensitive work imbued with a sense of poetry.