Pentecost Fair

In this superb large-format oil on canvas (100 x 80 cm), Catalan painter Pere Mateu Blanch (1904–1965) delivers an extraordinary reinterpretation of the famous 1902 work Whitsun Fair by the illustrious British post-impressionist artist Sir Alfred James Munnings (1878–1959), successfully translating the effervescence and genre charm of the rural scene into his own mature plastic language. The composition unfolds a remarkably rich outdoor scene populated by dealers, stallholders, and fairgoers, in which Mateu demonstrates a virtuoso mastery of life studies and plein air painting, filtering diaphanous light through the foliage to bathe traveling stalls, horse carts, and key figures in warmth. Stylistically, the work stands out for its agile, loose, and impasto-laden brushwork, evident in the formidable anatomical rendering of the draft horses, the plasticity sculpting the folds of the garments, and the detailed virtuosity of the faces—most notably the expressive white-bearded vendor offering fruit from his basket and the boy in the foreground biting into an apple with striking realistic freshness. The chromatic palette, rich in warm earth tones, burnt ochres, lush greens, and luminous accents of white, vermilion, and blue, endows the piece with optical dynamism and top-tier spatial depth. Trained between Barcelona and Paris, Pere Mateu Blanch's career was marked by success in official competitions and prestigious exhibitions, with his works held in museum collections and institutions such as the Museu de Terrassa, as well as forming part of prominent public, corporate, and private collections specializing in major 20th-century figurative painting.