Located in Sitges, Barcelona
Original Mediterranean Mallorcan House and Garden Modernist Oil Painting
Artist: Antoni Maria Sadurní i Albañà (1927–2014)
Title: Casa Mallorquina
Date: 1993
Medium: Oil on canvas
Artwork dimensions: 54 × 65 cm / 21.26 × 25.59 in
Framed dimensions: 84 × 95 cm / 33.07 × 37.40 in
Signature: Signed lower right
Frame: Framed
Origin: Spain
Subject: Mallorca, Mediterranean architecture and garden
Provenance / Exhibition: Masters Art Galerie, Palma de Mallorca, 1993
Documentation: The painting is reproduced in the original catalogue of the artist’s 1993 exhibition at Masters Art Galerie, Palma de Mallorca.
DESCRIPTION
A particularly attractive Mediterranean landscape by Spanish painter Antoni Maria Sadurní i Albañà, depicting a traditional Mallorcan house surrounded by a lush flowering garden beneath an intense blue sky.
Painted in 1993, the work is titled Casa Mallorquina and represents one of the subjects most closely associated with Sadurní’s mature production: the architecture, vegetation and brilliant light of the Mediterranean.
The composition is built around the contrast between the luminous white walls of the house and the dense greens of the garden. Small accents of red, pink, orange and yellow animate the foreground, while the clear blue sky gives the scene an unmistakably Balearic atmosphere.
Sadurní uses a confident and spontaneous brushstroke, alternating broad areas of colour with more energetic touches in the trees, flowers and vegetation. The restrained geometry of the architecture provides structure to the composition, while the garden introduces movement and texture.
Of particular interest is the documented exhibition history of the painting. Casa Mallorquina was included in Antoni Sadurní’s exhibition at Masters Art Galerie in Palma de Mallorca in 1993 and is reproduced in the original exhibition catalogue, a copy of which accompanies the work and is visible in the photographs.
This documented provenance adds considerable interest to an already highly decorative example of Spanish Mediterranean painting.
ARTIST BIOGRAPHY
Antoni Maria Sadurní i Albañà (Vic, 1927–2014) was a Catalan painter best known for his landscapes and Mediterranean scenes.
He studied drawing in Vic and was influenced by artists connected with the celebrated Olot landscape tradition, developing his own increasingly personal interpretation of the Spanish and Catalan landscape.
In 1947 he became part of Els 8, a group of young artists and intellectuals active in Vic who contributed to the renewal of Catalan cultural life during the post-war period.
Throughout his career Sadurní concentrated especially on landscapes, villages, rural architecture and Mediterranean coastal subjects. Mallorca and the Balearic Islands provided particularly suitable material for his interest in strong sunlight, white architecture and intense Mediterranean colour.
His mature paintings are characterised by assured brushwork, carefully balanced compositions and an ability to simplify architecture and landscape without losing their atmosphere or sense of place.
ARTISTIC INSPIRATION
Sadurní’s Mediterranean landscapes belong to the broader tradition of modern Spanish painting in which the visual experience of place is transformed through colour and direct brushwork.
The luminous whites, clear blues and simplified architecture of Casa Mallorquina can be related to the Mediterranean sensibility found in painters such as Joaquín Sorolla and Joaquim Mir, while its freer construction through colour recalls aspects of Raoul Dufy and the Fauvist tradition.
There is also an affinity with later Spanish landscape painters such as Benjamín Palencia and Godofredo Ortega Muñoz, particularly in Sadurní’s tendency to reduce the landscape to strong compositional masses while preserving its atmosphere.
Rather than describing every botanical or architectural detail, Sadurní uses colour, light and abbreviated brushstrokes to convey the sensation of a Mediterranean garden in full sunlight.
PROVENANCE AND DOCUMENTATION
An especially important feature of this painting is its documented exhibition history.
The reverse of the work retains documentation relating to Antoni Sadurní’s exhibition at Masters Art Galerie in Palma de Mallorca, held in 1993.
The painting itself is reproduced in the original exhibition catalogue under the title Casa Mallorquina, Mallorca, confirming its title, date and participation in the exhibition.
The survival of this contemporary documentation gives the work an unusually strong provenance for a Spanish landscape of this period.
Spanish Modern Art, Mediterranean Painting, Mallorca Painting...
Category
1990s Post-Impressionist Andre Vignoles Art