The city walls of Girona

Modest Urgell Inglada was a Catalan painter and writer, he was a pupil of Ramon Martí Alsina, and studied under Gustave Courbet in Paris. His work, however, is far removed from Realism and, within academicist canons, announces Symbolism.

This allegorical painting, on the siege of Girona by Napoleon’s troops, shows the deserted city walls of Girona.

At the bottom the skyline of the defeated city in the evening light.

The flight of an eagle evokes the imperial figure of Napoleon.

At the foot of the wall, symbolising the fall of the city, a clump of laurels grows as a token of Girona’s moral victory.