Cayetano de Arquer Buigas was born in Cerdanyola del Vallés, Barcelona, on January 11, 1932, into an aristocratic and artistic family. His grandfather was the architect Cayetano Buigas, who designed the Monument to Columbus in Barcelona. He became one of the most emblematic inheritors of 19th-century Catalan and French Impressionist style, capturing the beauty of women through pastel, oil, and charcoal.
His oeuvre boasts around 300 portraits, 3,000 pastels and charcoals, and a similar number of oil paintings, along with other drawings and works. What is most impressive is not the quantity but the quality, due to his ceaseless search for perfection in each work, from his first oil painting to his final portrait finished just hours before his death.
His style features an elegant, restrained color palette and a compelling balance between composition and subject choices. He explored portraiture, figure studies, equestrian subjects, landscapes, scenes of daily life, maternity, taverns, and more with equal mastery. His work requires no complex explanations, as one effortlessly feels the beauty and emotion in every brushstroke.
“Everyone is capable of admiring a sunset’s beauty, and many have the ability to capture its colors, but only an artist can reinvent what she sees so that it seems both familiar and new at once.” — Victor Hugo
His artistic integrity is the result of innate talent, a keen skill for conveying beauty and elegance, and detailed study of other great masters undertaken throughout his entire life. Artists as disparate as Goya, Degás, Romero de Torres, Sorolla, Vermeer, and Rembrandt occupy a space in his imagery, but their trace is faint, as only occurs in the work of the greatest masters.
His work has been exhibited in numerous national and international galleries and is held in private collections across Spain, France, Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States. In 2011, one of his works was selected for the BP Portrait Award exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in London. He passed away on September 13, 2012, at the age of 80.
Q: What defines Cayetano de Arquer Buigas’s artistic style?
A: His elegant, restrained color palette and compelling balance between composition and subject choices. He captured the beauty and sensitivity of women of his era through pastel, oil, and charcoal with equal mastery. He stands as one of the most emblematic inheritors of 19th-century Catalan and French Impressionist style, and his work is characterized by its daring originality, even when exploring well-trodden themes.