Ricard Opisso: Drawings and the Barcelona of Modernisme

Ricard Opisso knew how to draw the noise of a city. His illustrations are populated by vendors, passers-by, women in conversation, children weaving between adults' legs and figures who seem about to step off the paper. Some occupy the foreground; others are little more than a gesture or a silhouette in the distance. None is there by chance.

This talent for observing people made Ricard Opisso i Sala (Tarragona, 1880 – Barcelona, 1966) one of the most recognisable draughtsmen of twentieth-century Catalonia. His scenes of everyday life are perhaps his most celebrated work, although his story begins much earlier, among the architects and artists of Modernista Barcelona. Understanding that journey helps us appreciate his drawings, caricatures and the extensive body of prints after Ricard Opisso that has reached the collectors' market.

This article brings together documented episodes from his career and a selection of works on paper held at El Taller del Coleccionista. Among them is a composition of Joaquim Mir and Isidre Nonell, particularly evocative for what it suggests about the memory of Catalan Modernisme. It also illustrates an important distinction: in the legacy of such a prolific illustrator, an original drawing, a work under examination and a hand-coloured print are very different objects.

From Gaudí's workshop to the Barcelona of Els Quatre Gats

Opisso was born in Tarragona on 20 November 1880. His father, Alfred Opisso, worked as a journalist and art critic, so books and conversations about culture formed part of family life. When the Opisso family settled in Barcelona, the city was changing at an extraordinary pace: the Eixample was expanding, Modernista buildings were rising, and cafés flourished where art, literature and politics were debated.

In 1892, while still a boy, Ricard joined Antoni Gaudí's workshop at the Sagrada Família. There he undertook drawing and photographic work. This experience is better documented than is sometimes assumed: the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya has studied his written recollections and his relationship with the architect, while noting that the memoirs he wrote years later contain some of the inaccuracies common to personal accounts.

The contrast between that working environment and the artistic circles he began to frequent is revealing. While the Sagrada Família demanded discipline and attention to form, Barcelona's cafés brought together young artists, satirical magazines and new approaches to drawing. Opisso moved between both worlds and soon found his own territory in the observation of people.

One of his key meeting places was Els Quatre Gats. The café, opened by Pere Romeu, brought together Ramon Casas, Santiago Rusiñol, Isidre Nonell, Joaquim Mir and the young Pablo Picasso, among others. Opisso knew this milieu at first hand and left drawings that help us imagine it today. The Institut d’Estudis Catalans' Diccionari d’artistes catalans, valencians i balears highlights his ability to portray people from that circle not just as artists, but as recognisable individuals.

His relationship with Picasso belongs to this period. They shared places and friendships, but their artistic paths ultimately diverged. Opisso did not pursue the major formal transformations of avant-garde painting. He found his place on paper, where a face, a posture or a group gathered around a table could contain a small story.

Joaquim Mir and Isidre Nonell. Evocació

This composition from our collection is particularly appropriate when discussing the early Opisso. Two men, identified in a handwritten inscription as Joaquim Mir and Isidre Nonell, stand wearing hats against a background of warm washes. The drawing is direct, and the watercolour barely needs to describe the setting. What matters is the figures, their bearing and the relationship between them.

The word “Evocació”, written beside their names, invites us to read the scene as a recollection of Barcelona's artistic milieu. The two figures appear as remembered individuals rather than the subjects of a formal portrait. The subject is particularly relevant because of Mir and Nonell's relationship with the Modernista generation of Els Quatre Gats.

The work also bears an “Opisso” signature. The signature, inscription, technique and characteristics of the drawing all form part of our ongoing investigation into its authorship. The piece remains under examination and is not currently offered for sale. Its inscription and handling provide a starting point for studying its relationship with that artistic circle.

The detail photograph shows the signature and the handwritten names accompanying the figures. The handwriting, the relationship between ink and watercolour, and the arrangement of the annotations provide specific elements for comparison with documented works by the artist.

The draughtsman who found his audience in the press

Magazines played a decisive role in Ricard Opisso's career. He published his first drawing in Luz in 1898, later contributing to the Modernista publications Quatre Gats and Pèl & Ploma. In 1903 he began working for Cu-Cut!, an ideal outlet for his quick eye.

Cartoons of that period had to communicate rapidly. A scene needed to work as soon as a page was opened, while also rewarding readers who paused over its details. Opisso mastered both possibilities. He knew how to exaggerate a gesture without making it unrecognisable, and how to build small scenes whose humour arose from relationships between the characters.

His career also took him to Paris, where he encountered the French illustration and publishing world. He later contributed to magazines such as Le Rire and Fantasio, extending the reach of his illustrations beyond Barcelona. Back in Barcelona, following the closure of Cu-Cut! in 1912, he contributed to L’Esquella de la Torratxa and La Campana de Gràcia. He also published drawings in Papitu, using the pseudonym Bigre for some work.

The list of publications does not end there. Opisso illustrated books, advertisements, children's publications, comic strips and sports pages. He was also one of the artists of TBO, a magazine that became part of the shared imagination of generations of readers. His popularity did not depend on a single type of image: he could move from political satire to entertainment or a domestic scene without losing his distinctive way of observing.

The illustrated press was central to twentieth-century visual culture. In its pages, Opisso could record streets, people and customs with a narrative freedom different from that offered by traditional genres of painting.

The crowded city: Opisso's speciality

Opisso often brings crowds to mind. In these drawings, a café, a quay or a celebration fills with people acting simultaneously. There is no single protagonist or obvious reading order. The eye moves from one group to another, discovering actions that initially seemed secondary: an embrace, an argument, a falling hat, someone watching from a corner.

What is striking is that these scenes do not feel chaotic. The artist combines large and small figures, creates diagonals, distributes empty spaces and uses gestures to connect different points on the paper. The accumulation of people is governed by a precise composition. Even when the humour is obvious, the scene retains a documentary quality: it tells us about people's clothes, meeting places and the behaviour of an era.

Barcelona's harbour: a crowd in motion

In Multitud y bañistas en el puerto de Barcelona, people crowd onto a quay while other figures are in the water. Each small group seems to be reacting to a different situation. The diagonal of the landing stage organises the scene and draws the eye into the distance, where the same bustle continues.

The piece in our collection is a hand-coloured print on paper, based on the artist's image. The applied colour gives this particular impression its nuances, while the underlying linework is printed. For an artist who worked extensively for publications, this distinction is an essential part of studying his work.

An evening celebration beside the café

Popular celebrations offered another subject for his observant eye. In Café popular y baile de verbena, tables, glasses, dancing couples and onlookers form a succession of interconnected scenes. The café occupies one end, but the activity seems to extend far beyond its walls.

The variety of attitudes is what matters. Some characters take part, others watch; some move enthusiastically while others remain almost motionless. This diversity makes the scene feel alive without the need for a central plot. This example is also a hand-coloured print, as recorded on its artwork page.

Carnival, circus and other settings for the imagination

The world of entertainment was another familiar territory for Ricard Opisso. It offered costumes, striking characters, exaggerated gestures and situations absent from daily routines. He could draw a festive scene while introducing small satirical observations about the audience or participants.

Carnestoltes and the Felicitat float

In this composition, a female figure rides on a decorated float, surrounded by fantastical characters and drawn by a deer. The word “Felicitat” appears on the vehicle, turning the scene into a small carnival allegory. There is humour in the details and a taste for extravagance well suited to the celebration depicted.

The illustration is dated 1924. Our piece is a hand-coloured print, and the date of the original drawing should not automatically be assigned to the printing or colouring of this particular impression. The photograph shows how colour contributes to an image originally conceived through drawing.

Horses and acrobats

Escenas de circo y equitación brings together different acts on a single sheet. Riders, acrobats and horses are arranged as though each part of the paper records a different moment in a performance. Opisso uses bodily postures to convey movement, while the spaces between figures maintain the clarity of the whole.

The example catalogued by the Taller is a print hand-coloured with gouache. In contrast to the densely populated harbour and celebration scenes, each gesture here functions almost as an independent vignette.

Characters, encounters and the memory of Catalan Modernisme

Opisso's social observation was not limited to festivities. He also found subjects in chance encounters, artistic life and moments of mourning. The following two compositions, catalogued as attributed to him, allow us to explore this more intimate dimension without treating their authorship as settled.

An encounter between two figures

In El Encuentro, two men appear to have stopped to talk on a path. One wears a red barretina cap; the other is dressed differently. The contrast between the figures and the economy of the drawing make the scene read almost as a sketch of everyday customs.

The work is catalogued as attributed to Ricard Opisso. Its line, technique and subject offer material for study, but are not sufficient to present the authorship as certain. It is precisely the kind of piece whose signatures, support and documentary history should be examined before a final judgement is made.

A farewell to the poet Ignasi Iglésies

Another composition in our collection relates to the funeral of the poet and playwright Ignasi Iglésies in 1928. Groups of figures gather around a commemorative portrait, expressing grief in different ways. The attention to individual characters recalls Opisso's skill in depicting a crowd, although the tone differs markedly from his festive scenes.

A handwritten note on the reverse connects the drawing with the funeral. It is an interesting historical clue and forms part of the work's documentation; its attribution to Opisso remains explicitly identified as such on the artwork page. Inscriptions aid research, but do not replace a rigorous comparison with drawings of documented authorship.

These two pieces, together with the composition devoted to Mir and Nonell, reveal a different aspect from the printed satirical image. They invite us to consider drawing as a memory of particular people, and the importance that a signature, a name or a note on the reverse can acquire.

Collecting drawings and prints associated with Opisso

Ricard Opisso's output was extensive and circulated through many media. When encountering one of his images, the first question should therefore be what kind of piece we are looking at, rather than how much it is worth. A magazine illustration, an original ink drawing, a watercolour and a later print can share a composition while being very different objects.

With an original drawing, it is useful to examine the continuity of the line, corrections, possible printing marks, the nature of the paper and inscriptions. With a printed example, the reproduction process, age and any hand-applied colour should be studied. A hand-coloured print may have individual characteristics, but it remains a print.

A signature does not settle the entire investigation either. Its integration into the work must be assessed and compared with documented examples. Where authorship remains unresolved, that should be recorded on the artwork page without making the qualification the headline of every reference. The composition devoted to Mir and Nonell is, in fact, available solely for documentary consultation while research into its authorship continues.

Condition is particularly important for works on paper. Stains, foxing, creases, the acidity of secondary supports and the effects of past restoration all matter. Where collage, inscriptions or hand-applied pigments are present, their stability should also be examined.

On the market, authorship, technique, the quality of the drawing and its documentation all influence valuation. A hand-coloured print and an original drawing require different comparables, preferably actual sales of equivalent pieces, alongside an assessment of condition.

A Barcelona still visible in his drawings

Ricard Opisso left not one image of Barcelona, but many: the formal city of architects and the artists of Els Quatre Gats, the city of newspapers, celebrations and people meeting in cafés. In each, he seems drawn to the same thing: the human gesture and the small story that a few lines can contain.

His work retains historical value precisely because it never simply illustrates an era from the outside. Opisso was part of it. He knew some of its protagonists, worked for its publications and observed its streets for decades. That proximity explains the vitality of his finest images.

Our catalogue devoted to Ricard Opisso brings together hand-coloured prints and drawings at different stages of examination. The photographs in this article link to each piece's individual page; for Evocació, they lead to its research record, with no purchase available while authentication remains ongoing.

Documentation and further reading

Biographical and historical information has been checked against the Institut d’Estudis Catalans' Diccionari d’artistes catalans, valencians i balears; the Gran Enciclopèdia Catalana; and Mariàngels Fondevila's study published by the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya. Observations on the gallery's pieces are based on their individual records and photographs; the attribution of works under examination is not treated as confirmed.