Domènec Soberano i Mestres (1825,

Reus Reus () is the capital of Baix Camp, in Camp de Tarragona, Catalonia, Spain. The area has long been an important producer of wines and spirits, and gained continental significance during the time of the Phylloxera plague. Currently it is known f ...

- 1909, Reus) was a Catalan wine merchant who was also an amateur painter and art teacher.

Biography

Thanks to an improvement his father invented for the process of making

sparkling wine Sparkling wine is a wine with significant levels of carbon dioxide in it, making it fizzy. While it is common to refer to this as champagne, European Union countries legally reserve that word for products exclusively produced in the Champagne ( ...

, he was able to travel throughout Europe. In 1866, he converted the family business from a wine warehouse to the production of "Champagne de Reus", under the name Soberano & Cia. In 1867, he presented his Cava wine at the Exposition Universelle in Paris. During his trips, he developed an interest in painting techniques and discovered

watercolor Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (Commonwealth English; see American and British English spelling differences#-our, -or, spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin 'water'), is a painting metho ...

s, which were little known in Catalonia at the time. He was largely self-taught, and always considered himself to be an amateur.C. Gonzalez i López, ''Homenatge a 20 artistes reusencs nats al segle XIX'', Banco de Bilbao, 1981 He opened a drawing school in Reus, which he operated until 1888. He was a friend of Marià Fortuny Baró and Antoni Marsal, the grandfather and uncle, respectively, of

Marià Fortuny Mariano Fortuny y Marsal (June 11, 1838 – November 21, 1874) was a Spanish painter known for works focusing on Romantic fascination with Orientalist themes, historicist genre painting and military painting of Spanish imperial expansion. B ...

. Soberano was his first painting instructor and, seeing his great potential, recommended him to the sculptor, , who brought him to Barcelona. Fortuny was very grateful; maintaining a lifetime correspondence with Soberano and presenting him with several works. Among his other notable students were

Baldomer Galofre Baldomer Galofre i Giménez, in Spanish: Baldomero Galofré y Jiménez (25 May 1845 – 26 July 1902) was a Spanish painter. Biography Galofre was born in Reus. His first art lessons were in the workshop of the amateur painter and wine mercha ...

, Josep Tapiró Baró, and . His son, , was also a promising painter, but died young. Few of his own paintings are very well known. Many of them are

still-life A still life (: still lifes) is a work of art depicting mostly inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which are either natural (food, flowers, dead animals, plants, rocks, shells, etc.) or human-made (drinking glasses, books, ...

s and watercolor landscapes. His portraits were quite traditional in style. He usually did not sign his works. He also did decorative paintings at several houses in Reus. Toward the end of his life, he devoted himself to collecting his now-famous student Fortuny's paintings and drawings.Josep Olesti Trilles, ''Diccionari biogràfic de reusencs'', l'Ajuntament, 1992

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Soberano, Domenec 1825 births 1909 deaths Wine merchants Painters from Catalonia People from Reus