Eliseo Meifrén Barcelona 1859-1940

Private Collection, Scotland

Painted in 1908.

The setting for Meifrén's painting is the ría Pontevedra, a picturesque sheltered inlet on Galicia's Atlantic coast. The fishing boats in the present work remind of Pontevedra's long tradition of sardine fishing, still thriving today. 

Meifrén, who trained in Barcelona, travelled throughout Spain to paint its coasts and countryside, adopting a bright, vibrant palette influenced by the Impressionists whose work he saw in France in the 1870s. Like fellow Catalan painters Santiago Rusiñol and Joaquín Mir, he was fascinated by the changing effects of light on landscapes and water, which he captured masterfully in his canvases. Pontevedra is particularly rich in colour and atmosphere, the warmth of the houses glowing in the evening sun intensified by the cool, deep-blue water in the foreground.  

Meifrén was closely involved with the Sitges school of landscape painting, and the Catalan Modernista movement. However, he also held frequent one man exhibitions in Madrid and Barcelona, the first in 1890 at the Sala Parés, Barcelona.