{"id":6248,"date":"2025-12-08T19:59:58","date_gmt":"2025-12-08T19:59:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/revistaargo.mmb.cat\/?p=6248"},"modified":"2026-03-02T09:26:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T09:26:15","slug":"vista-del-port-de-barcelona-eng","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/revistaargo.mmb.cat\/en\/vista-del-port-de-barcelona-eng\/","title":{"rendered":"View of the port of Barcelona"},"content":{"rendered":"

This work allows the identification of numerous architectural elements of the city and the port, but also brings to the observer different types of boats, sailors at work and scenes of the city’s daily life. Thanks to its realism and meticulousness of detail, it has great value as a graphic representation of the city’s maritime history at the end of the 19th century. <\/p>\n

\"View
View of the port of Barcelona from the Barceloneta. 1889. Author: Francesc Soler i Rovirosa. Photo: MMB Collection<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Before painting this scene in tempera on a cotton canvas over 8 meters long, the renowned painter and set designer Francesc Soler i Rovirosa made the sketches and color tests from the roof of a building, now gone, which was located on the corner of the current Passeig de Borb\u00f3 and Carrer de Ginebra. From the height of a fourth floor in Barceloneta he created this panoramic view of the port area and the city. <\/p>\n

When and why was it painted?<\/strong><\/h4>\n

On the ground floor of the corner of Passeig de Gr\u00e0cia with Carrer de Casp, where the Casa Antoni Rocamora now stands, in 1882 Ignasi Elias commissioned the architect Salvador Vi\u00f1als to build the Caf\u00e8 Novedades. It was a spacious premises of more than 1,500 m 2<\/sup> , with 160 coffee tables and 23 billiard tables. The creation of this portrait of Barcelona is related to the renovation in which Francesc Soler Rovirosa participated, and to the reopening that was held on 31 October 1889, a social event announced days earlier in the Barcelona newspapers and about which several chronicles were subsequently written. One of them referred to this painting and its author: “On the front there is a view of Barcelona with its port, of large dimensions, and in the other paintings we remember, among other views, the Cathedrals of Burgos, Le\u00f3n and Seville, the Alhambra of Granada, the Escorial, the Royal Palace of Madrid, Toledo and San Sebasti\u00e1n (…). This restoration has been directed by the architect Don Salvador Vi\u00f1als and the painter Francisco Soler y Rovirosa. All the decorations and paintings belong to Se\u00f1or Soler” . <\/em>Another chronicle mentioned the thirteen paintings painted on glue that were located on the upper part of the walls. Unfortunately, we do not have any photographs of this painting inside the caf\u00e9 nor any plans of the Caf\u00e9 Novedades building to know the dimensions and shape of the wall where it was located. <\/p>\n

In the catalogue written by Rossend Casanova, for the exhibition \u201cPortrait of Maritime Barcelona. A vision of Francesc Soler i Rovirosa\u201d, which was organised by the MMB in 2009, there is a very detailed and documented description of the main painted elements that can be identified.<\/span><\/p>\n

In this catalog<\/a> Rossend Casanova locates and describes up to thirty architectural elements of Barcelona.<\/p>\n

The author<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Francesc Soler i Rovirosa (Barcelona, \u200b\u200b1836-1900) is considered one of the innovators of Catalan scenography, especially for his technical contributions and creative solutions. He developed a new conception of scenic space, his perspective abandoned rigidity and became atmospheric, while maintaining the realistic tradition in the formal sphere. <\/p>\n

At a young age, while studying drawing and painting, first at the Lorenzo Ferris Academy and then at the Llotja, he began training as a set designer with Mariano Carreras in the Odeon Theatre workshop. He also attended Josep Planella’s workshop at the Teatre Principal; F\u00e8lix Cag\u00e9’s at the Liceu, and Llu\u00eds Rigalt’s at the Principal de Gr\u00e0cia. At the age of eighteen he began to paint his first sets. <\/p>\n

In 1856 he continued his training by learning and working in France, Belgium and England. In Paris he delved into the possibilities of French stage design. There he met the great European stage designers of the time, and soon became the head of the layout and perspective section of Cambon’s workshop, and head of Thierry’s workshop. At the age of thirty-three, when he returned to Barcelona, \u200b\u200bhis great specialty was large-scale stage shows, stage production, costumes and machinery for magic comedies and large-scale shows. He obtained great recognition both in artistic conception and in technical resolution. The success achieved by the perfection and spectacularity of his work led him to tour Havana and New York in 1880. Upon his return, he was the one who trained the main stage designers of the following generation. <\/p>\n

He worked on other commissions other than stage design and was artistic advisor to the Universal Exhibition of Barcelona in 1888. He also worked as a decorator for establishments, among which we would like to highlight the Caf\u00e8 Novedades (1889), where we find the origin of this painting that is currently part of the MMB collections. <\/p>\n

Journey to the MMB <\/strong><\/h4>\n

<\/strong>In 1914 the Caf\u00e9 Novedades was demolished, but his family kept this painting. Years later his daughter donated it, along with other works by her father, to the Institut del Teatre. <\/p>\n

As recorded in the Maritime Museum’s entry register, on October 10, 1941, from the Theatre Institute, an 8.22 x 2.17 m canvas described as a reproduction of a view of the port of Barcelona and attributed to Francesc Soler i Rovirosa was deposited at the Museum.<\/p>\n

The fact that it is described as a canvas rather than a painting and its dimensions suggest that it arrived rolled up, as it had probably been preserved in recent years. We do not know in what conditions of conservation the painting arrived at the Museum, as no written documentation has been found of its state of conservation or of restorations prior to 2006. The oldest photograph in the Museum’s archive is a glass plate from around 1940 where the sky and the entire painting have more brightness. <\/p>\n

\"Gelatin
Gelatin and silver bromide negative on glass of the painting View of the Port of Barcelona, \u200b\u200bdated around 1940. Photo: MMB Collection.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Painted by Francesc Soler i Rovirosa from Barceloneta in 1889<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4095,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[107],"tags":[71],"class_list":["post-6248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-museum-treasures","tag-argo15-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistaargo.mmb.cat\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistaargo.mmb.cat\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistaargo.mmb.cat\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistaargo.mmb.cat\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistaargo.mmb.cat\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6248"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/revistaargo.mmb.cat\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6248\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6866,"href":"https:\/\/revistaargo.mmb.cat\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6248\/revisions\/6866"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistaargo.mmb.cat\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistaargo.mmb.cat\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistaargo.mmb.cat\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistaargo.mmb.cat\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}