Springtime on Ibiza

Rigoberto Perez Soler (1896-1968), Springtime, 1934, Oil on Canvas, 39 ½ by 35 ½ in., Private Collection

Rigoberto Soler, View of Santa Eularia, 1943, Oil on Canvas

Rigoberto Soler, Oil on Canvas

Rigoberto Soler, Scene Playing the Flute, Oil on Canvas

The notorious art forger Elmyr de Hory, whose colorful life was chronicled in “Fake,” a 1969 book written by Clifford Irving, a well-known hoaxer himself, was not the only visual artist associated with the enchanted island of Ibiza in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Spain.    

Rigoberto Perez Soler (1896-1968), a wonderful Spanish painter with a soft, Impressionist’s touch, made quite a name for himself among the locals during the 30-some years he lived on the picturesque island, a popular tourist haven and refuge for celebrities.  From 1924, when he first arrived on Ibiza, until 1956, when he left for good for Barcelona and his teaching job,  Soler painted countless pictures of the Island’s residents, as well as village scenes, seascapes and anything else that caught his eye. 

Every day was sunny springtime for this painter.  I doubt if he ever painted a picture on a gray day, probably reserving those rare occasions for creating his drawings and lithographs.  In addition to landscapes and genre paintings, Soler executed many commissioned portraits.  Most of his work is in private hands, and not many people know about him today, although his paintings do surface at auctions from time to time.  Three years ago, his niece, Maria Jesus Soler, who is also a painter, wrote a biography, in Spanish, of her uncle as a means to rescue him from what she rightly characterizes as his undeserved obscurity. 

Rigoberto Soler was born in Alcoy, a city in the Spanish province of Alicante.  He became an artist against the wishes of his father, a city administrator, who wanted him to become a banker.   Soler studied painting in Valencia and won a number of prizes early on.

When Rigoberto first left the mainland for Ibiza, he was 28 years old and impoverished, but very eager to paint.  He put up a shack he had transported from Valencia on a quiet little beach off the beaten track in the village of Santa Eularia des Riu, painted it blue and called it “Blue Nest.”  He lived there with Pilar, his beautiful Spanish girlfriend and model, whom he featured in many of his early paintings on the island.  The little beach is named “Platja des Niu Blau” in homage to the painter’s dwelling.

Soler is said to have been a much-loved character around the village, constantly painting his friends and neighbors and the sun-filled environment around Santa Eularia.  Maria Jesus Soler was surprised at the “indelible impression” her uncle had made on his neighbors when she visited to gather material for her biography. 

You would know about Soler if you have read Elliot Paul’s 1937 book, “Life and Death of a Spanish Town.”  The book tells of Paul’s experiences living in the village during the Spanish Civil War.  The author records the lives of the natives and expatriates, mentioning Soler many times, according to a Wikipedia entry on the painter.  The book sounds fascinating, but I’m not much of a reader, so I’ll probably never get around to reading it myself.

When Soler won a Silver medal in a Madrid exhibition, he used the prize money, together with money from his mainland patrons, to build a proper house and studio on a hill above the village.  Pilar had left him and moved back to the mainland by then.  But in 1933, he met a German woman named Clare Sinderman, who was staying at a hotel on the Island, and they got married two years later.  Soler’s niece credits Sinderman with putting some order in his Bohemian lifestyle. 

 In 1943, the painter was given a professorship at the School of Arts and Crafts in Barcelona, and he and wife moved to the city.  But Soler and members of his family returned often to the house on Ibiza until he reluctantly sold it in 1956.  He remained teaching at the school until his retirement in 1964.  He died four years later in Valencia.

Notwithstanding the turmoil caused by the three-year Spanish Civil War, Ibiza must have been a paradise for this painter of sunlight. His niece says the number of works her uncle created on the island between 1924 and 1956 is “incalculable” because the fate of so many of them is simply not known.  Images of Soler’s paintings that are available on the Internet indicate that he must have been influenced by the work of his older countryman from the same region of Spain, the great Joaquin Sorolla, a native of Valencia.  Soler’s approach to painting similar subjects is much more restrained and ultimately far less impressive, however.  Unfortunately for this time-sensitive blog post of mine, there aren’t enough high-quality images of Soler’s paintings online to properly assess his body of work

But I was captivated by one painting I came across in an old Sotheby’s auction catalog that reveals Soler to be a painter of the very first rank.  The painting is called Springtime.  It was painted in 1934, a year after he met Clare Sinderman.  I’m sure she is the gorgeous blonde Brunhilde smelling the apple blossoms in the painting. This one painting by Soler is a masterpiece.  There’s no doubt about it.  I’ve never seen a more beautiful painting of a similar subject.

 I wonder how many other great paintings were created by Soler and remain hidden away in private collections on Ibiza and the mainland.   I’m not a beach person at all, but wouldn’t it be nice to hang out for a few years on the island in a little shack painted blue to research the matter, and maybe paint a few sunny day pictures, too?

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