Olot school

The Olot school of landscape painting is a group of painters that created an artistic style in the second half of the 19th century. It includes not simply artists from Olot (in Catalonia, Spain), but all artists whose artworks were inspired by the countryside of Olot. By extension, artists connected with Olot and its comarca, Garrotxa.

In Catalonia, the proliferation of painting coincided with the Restoration, a period marked by economic prosperity that favored the bourgeoisie which was the motor of the cultural renaissance of Catalan nationalism. This bourgeoisie had considerable influence in the arts; it sought art that was realistic, but simultaneously pleasing, elegant, and optimistic, and preferred painting over other artistic disciplines. During this period, several schools of art began and were consolidated, among them the Olot school.

The Olot school of landscape painting is similar to the Barbizon school. It was formed by Joaquim and Marian Vayreda with the assistance of Ramón Martí Alsina. From this tradition emerged a new artistic concept: creating multiple versions of the Olot countryside, where the treatment of light and chromatic variations were important elements. The Olot school used the countryside of Garrotxa as a source of inspiration for their work, but with stylistic freedom. Vayreda's paintings attracted the attention of artists including Laureà Barrau, Enric Galwey, Joan Brull, Lluís Masriera, Modest Urgell, Ramon Casas, and Santiago Rusiñol, who went to Olot and also painted depictions of the countryside.

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