'Still Life of Pastis and Peaches on a Lace Tablecloth' by Ramon Moscardo, Prismatic Modernist Gouache

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Signed lower right 'R. Moscardo' for Ramon Moscardo Fernandez (Spanish, born 1953) and painted circa 1980.

A substantial and scintillating, … Read more Signed lower right 'R. Moscardo' for Ramon Moscardo Fernandez (Spanish, born 1953) and painted circa 1980.

A substantial and scintillating, watercolor and gouache still-life comprising a bottle of Anis (Pastis), peaches in a cut glass bowl and a vase of flowers refracting rays of prismatic light across the surface of a lace tablecloth.

Ramon Moscardo trained at Barcelona’s Escuela de Bellas Artes de Sant Jordi and, subsequently, at the Escuela de Llotja.

Twin brother of the painter Josep Moscardo, Ramon works in a similar in style and subject matter to that of his brother, yet with his own way of expression. Both painters' works are informed by the bold, graphic colorism of the Post-impressionists, and the festive atmosphere of their native Catalonia.

Like his brother, he uses perspective however not in an panoramic approach as his brother favors. "His cityscapes and interiors are tightly observed and focus on whatever street, shop or café he spots the modest poetry of the everyday. He builds his compositions geometrically, and the oblique angles of so many of his scenes suggest a sense of the theatrical. But he avoids the artificial or banal through his acute observation of the tiny gestures and postures we adopt to communicate the unsaid. These small details lend his stylized, attenuated figures personality and wit, but also weave a light narrative throughout many of his pictures. The man watching the haughty trajectory of an animal leaving an otherwise empty bar in Ramon’s 'Just a Cat' illustrates this perfectly. But it’s also worth noting the pose of the couple walking along the Left Bank, which evokes the awkward tendresses of real people. Equally, Ramon grasps that how someone looks up from a newspaper when distracted by something fleeting (like a young girl on a bike), differs from how they look up when simply lost in thought, as well as the fact that these two gestures can have a different impact on other people." See less