Mallorca has always been a place of creative inspiration for artists. Many of them were born on the island whilst others came to live here to work. Most artists working in Mallorca are attracted by the distinctive light conditions, one of the particularities of this Mediterranean archipelago.

One of the more famous of all Mallorcan artists was Hermenegild Anglada i Camarasa. He was born in Barcelona in 1871 where, after attending school, he was trained as a painter at the academy of Belles Arts. In 1894, he moved to Paris, installed his studio and much later, an art academy. In Paris, he adopted a more personal style, not unlike that of Degas and Toulouse-Lautrec. His use of intense colors presaged the arrival of Fauvism. Anglada Camarasa successfully participated in exhibitions in Dresden (1901), Venice (1903, 1905 and 1907) and Buenos Aires (1910), giving him international recognition including winning the Gold Medal at the Biennale di Venezia. He first came to Mallorca in 1911 and settled here after the start of World War I. He worked in Pollença where he was soon joined by an erstwhile pupil of his, Tito Cittadini (Buenos Aires, 1886). Both artists founded in 1916 what came to be known as the Escuela de Pollença (together with Dionís Bennàssar et al). In 1924, Anglada Camarasa had important exhibitions in the USA and was the invited guest of honour at the Pittsburgh International Exposition. Both artists left Spain when the Guerra Civil broke out, but returned in 1946-47 to spend the rest of their lives in Pollença where Anglada Camarasa died in 1959 and Cittadini, in 1960.

Anglada Camarasa’s widow opened the artist’s house in Port de Pollença in 1967 to the public as a private museum. The works preserved in this museum were acquired by the Fundació La Caixa in 1991. A large body of his major work is exhibited permanently at the headquarters of the CaixaForum in Palma de Mallorca, known as the Grand Hotel (see photo above). Now, a superb exhibition of drawings, sketches and small oils by Anglada Camarasa is shown there at the moment (until October 17th), as well. Very good indeed.

The photo (top) was taken in Palma de Mallorca, Baleares, Spain. The date: June 14th, 2010. The time was 11:57:57. The photo (bottom) was borrowed from the Internet. My thanks go to Carlos Pons and Flickr.

Muchas gracias.