Antoni Rotger Vilar (1925–2000) - Lyrical study of a nude

Lyric study of nude

Style: lyrical figuration – late Post-Impressionism
Pictorial School: Catalan School of Postwar / Modern Mediterranean Figuration

Technical sheet

Author: Antoni Rotger Vilar (1925–2000)
Chronology: c. 1960–1970
Technique: Oil on panel
Measurements: 61 × 48 cm
Measurements with frame: 76 × 63 cm
Signature: Signed in the bottom right corner.
Condition: Good, with a natural patina of time.
Golden frame of quality, with sober lines and balanced proportions, in line with mid-20th-century aesthetics and perfectly integrated into the work.

2. Compositional and iconographic description

The work depicts a male figure nude, captured in a state of introspection and emotional transition. The body appears deliberately dematerialized, constructed through glazes and loose brushstrokes in a range of blues, whites, and light ochres, which blur the contours and blend figure and atmosphere.

The composition abandons concrete narration to focus on sensation and emotional atmosphere, endowing the nude with a poetic and spiritual character. The anatomy, suggested rather than described, enhances an intimate, silent, and profoundly human reading, where painting becomes a space for contemplation.

3. Style, School, and Comparative Valuation

Antoni Rotger Vilar clearly aligns with Catalan modern figurative art after the war, within a lyrical post-impressionist line, where the interest lies not in academic description but in emotional expression and pictorial atmosphere.

Your language shows affinities with authors like Joaquim Sunyer, certain periods of Isidre Nonell in his most intimate aspect, and with the poetic figuration of Mariano Andreu or Maurice Denis, despite the chronological differences. Against Baroque dramatism, the work proposes a modern internalization of the body, where light replaces chiaroscuro and emotion replaces narration.

It is an elegant, honest, and representative piece, of notable interest to collectors of 20th-century Mediterranean figuration, standing out for its sensitivity, chromatic balance, and technical refinement.