19th-20th century Spanish

Sunyer is regarded as one of the main exponents of Catalan . He began his studies at the School of Fine Arts of Barcelona alongside great artists including Isidre Nonell (1872-1911) and Joaquim Mir (1873-1940). In the company of the latter, he frequented the outskirts of the city to paint au plein air.
His earliest paintings boast great luminosity, in the style of the works of his uncle, the painter Joaquim de Miró (1849-1914). The simplicity and clarity of his work were fully in consonance with the Catalan and European artistic context of the time.
In 1896, like many other artists from his generation, Sunyer decided to move to Paris. His time there transformed his Modernista style and favoured a rapprochement with the way of painting of the ** artists like Édouard Vuillard (1868-1940) or Pierre Bonnard (1867-1947). His early years in Paris were not easy because of his precarious financial situation. Around 1903 he met Picasso (1881-1973), Manolo Hugué (1872-1945) and Aristide Maillol (1861-1944) in Montmartre. From that moment onwards, he started to use pastel and oil paint, and to depict everyday scenes from the Paris working class district of Belleville. Another noteworthy influence from that time was the female nudes by Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919).
Following an exhibition of his work at Galería Faianç Catalá in 1911, Sunyer began to be viewed as the leader of , a movement in whose creation he was not actually involved but whose ideals reacting against the frivolousness of late Modernismo were very much in line with his personal aesthetics.
After intermittent trips around the Iberian Peninsula, towards the end of the 1900s he decided to return to his city of birth, although not to settle permanently. In 1913-1914 he travelled to Italy, and maintained studios in Barcelona and Paris as well as spending some time in Palma de Mallorca.
The outbreak of the Spanish Civil War forced him to go into exile to France, from where he would not return until 1941.
In 1954 he was awarded the Gran Prix for an Artist’s Work at the Havana Biennial. His work is in the collections of many major institutions, including the Museo de Bellas Artes, Bilbao; Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya, Barcelona; and Centre Pompidou, Paris.