'Por Un Coracero - Historia Triste Contada por Pellicer' (El Mundo Cómico #22).
The mid- to late-19th-century painter, journalist and illustrator José Luis Pellicer was also a pioneer of Spanish comic art. His artwork and writings appeared in a variety of magazines, including La Vanguardia, La Renaixença, Diari Català, La Campana de Gràcia, L'Esquella de la Torratxa and the satirical weekly El Mundo Cómico, of which he was co-chief editor. Starting in 1872, El Mundo Cómico ran several picture stories, which marked the debut of the comics medium in Spain. Besides his work as an illustrator, Pellicer wrote several news articles on the Turkish-Russian war, and exhibited his paintings in Madrid and Barcelona.
Early life
José Luis Pellicer Feñé (Josep Lluís in Catalan) was born in 1842 in Barcelona. He initially intended to become a surveyor, but chose art studies instead. He was educated by the Realism painter Ramón Martí Alsina, who also became his father-in-law. In 1865, Pellicer made a voyage to Rome, where he stayed three years to finetune his craft.
'Zitto, Silencio... Que Pasa La Ronda' (1871).
Painter
As a painter, Pellicer's most famous work is the oil painting 'Zitto, Silencio... Que Pasa La Ronda' ("Shut up! Silence! The Patrol is Passing!", 1871), showing a police patrol walking by at twilight. It was awarded the second medal at the Madrid Exhibition of 1871 and also earned praise at the 1878 Barcelona Exhibition. Other representative canvases by Pellicer are 'Una Calle de El Cairo', 'Costumbres de Tangier' and 'El Mercado de Balaguer'. He additionally painted the portrait of the scholar Manuel Milà i Fontanals, which is part of the Gallery of Illustrious Catalans (1888). His work was characterized by the Realism movement, but also shows influences from Impressionism and Orientalism. Pellicer's paintings are kept in the collections of the Museum of History of Barcelona, the National Archaeological Museum of Madrid, the Museum of Fine Arts of Córdoba and the Abelló Museum of Mollet del Vallès.
'Cartagena - Nuevos Apuntes de Nuestro Collaborador Sr. Pellicer' (La Ilustración Española y Americana, 8 February 1874).
Work for the press and publishing
Besides working as a painter, José Luis Pellicer was also active as a book illustrator and political cartoonist, praised for his fine, detailed stroke and vivid realism. Under the pseudonym Nyapus, he illustrated the first volumes of Frédéric Soler's poetry collection 'Singlots Poètics'. He also livened up the pages of José Zorrilla's 'La Leyenda del Cid' (1882) and installments of Benito Pérez Galdós' historical novel series 'Episodios Nacionales'.
As a political cartoonist and illustrator, Pellicer worked for La Ilustración Española y Americana and L'Esquella de la Torratxa, but also appeared in international magazines like the British paper The Graphic and the French magazines L'Illustration and Le Monde Illustré. During the Third Carlist War in Spain (1872-1876) and the Russian-Turkish War (1877-1878), he served as a war correspondent, making drawings of the war effort and reporting about events he witnessed on the battlefield. For the newspapers La Vanguardia, La Renaixensa and Diari Català, Pellicer wrote articles about art. He also contributed to La Campana de Gràcia and L'Esquella de la Torratxa.
Pellicer cover illustrations for El Mundo Cómico issues #7 and #64.
El Mundo Cómico
In November 1872, José Luis Pellicer was co-founder and art director of the satirical weekly El Mundo Cómico, published for four years in Madrid. Its chief editors were M. Matoses and Miguel Ramos Carrión, while Pellicer shared art direction duties with Félix Jaime y Mainar. The magazine's run fell within Spain's "Democratic Sexennium" (1868-1874), a time when freedom of the press permitted this type of publication. Still, the title frequently switched from printers during its four-year run.
Consisting of eight pages, El Mundo Cómico offered a satirical look at Spanish customs and politics. It was also notable as the first known Spanish magazine to feature picture stories, which can be interpreted as the country's first comic stories. These were often series of images placed in pairs or in groups of three or four, so that they could be interpreted as primitive comics. Others were actual sequential narratives. On 26 January 1873, the picture story 'Una Pasión Desconocida' ("An Unfortunate Passion"), written by Ximenez Crox and illustrated by Pellicer, appeared on pages 6 and 7 of issue #13. In issue #22 (30 March 1873), Pellicer created a center-spread picture story under the title 'Por Un Coracero - Historia Triste Contada por Pellicer' ("By a Cuirassier - Sad Story Told by Pellicer"). In issue #24, another Pellicer comic appeared, 'Escenas Matritenses' ("Madrid Scenes"). Another comic pioneer that drew a picture story for El Mundo Cómico was Francisco Cubas.
'Escenas Matritenses' (El Mundo Cómico #24).
Other activities
Pellicer was an anarchist and a Republican, in favor of abolishing the monarchy. In 1869, he co-signed the Tortosa Pact, in which Republican activists favored federalism. He was one of the organizers of the World Exhibition in Barcelona (1888). He additionally served as the head of the Museo de Reproducciones and was co-founder of the Catalan Institute of Book Arts (Institut Català de les Arts del Llibre), while also serving two terms as director. In 1894, he was named a member of the Royal Catalan Academy of Fine Arts of San Jorge (Reial Acadèmia Catalana de Belles Arts de Sant Jordi), which is now part of the University of Barcelona.
Death and family
José Luis Pellicer died in Barcelona in 1901. He was the uncle of the Catalan writer and typographer Antoni Pellicer i Paraire (1851-1916) and the journalist, painter and trade unionist Rafael Farga I Pellicer (1844-1890).
Caricature by Eduardo Sáenz Hermúa (Madrid Cómico, 1884).