Joaquim Sunyer studied at La Lonja School at the same time as Isidre Nonell and Joaquim Mir, although he did not become a member of the Colla del Safrá group. He travelled to Paris when he was twenty-two years old and produced illustrations for books and magazines. He set up in the Bateau-Lavoir and was influenced by French post-impressionists, as evidenced by the works that he exhibited at the Salon d’Automne in Paris. He returned to Spain in 1905, commissioned by the art dealer Barbazanges to paint Spanish themes, which were highly popular on the French art scene. Sunyer changed his style, though he was not linked to the Fauvist and Cubist movements, and unveiled his work in Barcelona in 1911. It fell within the Catalan noucentisme cultural movement. He lived in Spain from then on, except during the Spanish Civil War, when he moved to France and lived at Maillol’s house. He exhibited in Madrid, Pittsburgh, Paris and Barcelona; in 1949 he received the French Legion d’honneur and in 1954 the Grand Prix of the Hispano-American Biennial in Havana.

In 1999, the ‘Search for a Look. Joaquim Sunyer’ exhibition was held at the Modern Art Museum of Barcelona. Bilbao Fine Arts Museum staged an anthological exhibition on his work in 2014.

• Julián Gállego Serrano
• María José Alonso