Eliseo Meifrén Roig

Barcelona 1859 - Barcelona 1940

By: Julián Gállego Serrano, María José Alonso

Eliseo Meifrén Roig studied at the La Lonja School of Arts and Crafts under the tutelage of Antonio Caba. He travelled throughout France, where he first encountered impressionist painting, and Italy. In 1879, one of his landscapes won the Gold Medal at the Regional Exhibition of Valencia. His work was shown at the National Exhibitions of Fine Arts, where he won the Third Medal in 1899 and 1904 and the First Medal in 1906. He received several awards at the University of Paris in 1889 and 1899, at the Fine Arts Exhibition in Barcelona in 1896, at the universal exhibitions in Brussels, Buenos Aires and San Diego, the Nonell Prize in 1935, and elsewhere. His landscapes and seascapes, the result of his frequent travels, are imbued with impressionist touches; they depict spots on the Costa Brava, Mallorca, the Canary Islands, Italy, France, Switzerland and the Americas. He was actively involved in the Barcelona artistic scene and held numerous solo exhibitions in Europe, America and Spain, but above all at the Sala Parés in Barcelona. Between 1915 and 1917 he settled in New York where he successfully exhibited his Mediterranean landscapes. In 1926, he was made a Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Government.

Twelve years after his death, an exhibition of around two hundred works was held at the Palacio de la Virreina in his hometown.