Alexandre de Riquer

Alexandre de Riquer i Ynglada, 7th Count of Casa Dávalos (Born 3 May 1856 - 13 November 1920), was a versatile artist intellectual and Catalan designer, illustrator, painter, engraver, writer and poet. He was one of the leading figures of Modernisme in Catalonia. He belonged to an aristocratic family, the Counts of Casa Dávalos. His father, Martí de Riquer, Marquis of Benavent, was a senior leader of the Carlists of Catalonia, while his mother, Elisea Ynglada, belonged to a family of intellectuals and artists (including writers such as Joseph and Wifred Coroleu and painter Ricard Modest Urgell). In 1885, he was married to Dolors Palau Gonzalez de Quijano. "Between 1886 and 1898 he fathered nine children (three of whom died in infancy) and it was this responsibility with its attendant economic pressures which doubtless gave added, even urgent stimulus to Riquer's professional dedication." Riquer as an artist Riquer studied in France, first in Béziers between 1869 and 1871. "It was in Beziers that Riquer painted the first canvasses of his apprenticeship, and it was there that clear signs of a powerful artistic vocation, doubtless inherited from his mother, came to be prominent in his life." For his interest in drawing classes he enrolled in the School of Fine Arts in Toulouse of Languedoc, France. Then returned to Barcelona to continue his studies at the art school of La Llotja "where he was to study for several years under Tomas Padro, Claudi Lorenzale and, in particular, Antoni Caba, the teacher who he most admired."