Until Monday, December 17, at 7:24 p.m., the bidding for the exceptional online auction of the painting Dalmau II, Vizconde de Rocabertí, by Ricardo Ankermann Riera, is open. The work, of magnificent proportions (291 x 393 cm), is an oil on canvas from the Castle of Peralada in Catalonia. Its estimated value is 20,000-25,000 euros. Look at the next bid.
Ricardo Ankermann (Palma, 1842-1907), grandson of a Leipzig German who was assigned to Mallorca by the Swiss army in the service of the King of Spain, is one of the most outstanding painters of the Balearic Islands. In addition to being an artist he was a politician, he was part of the Democratic Party of the Balearic Islands being councilor of the City Council of Palma in 1868. At this stage he is a disciple of the painter Faust Morell, and his paintings follow more classicist canons.
Disappointed with politics, he traveled to Paris - where he worked in the workshops of Jules Cheret - and to London, returning to Mallorca in 1871 in light of the assignment of Joan Sureda to make the paintings of the music hall of Palau del rei Sanç de Valldemossa. Here he remained until his death in 1907, carrying out outstanding projects inside and outside the island, such as la sala de baile del Cercle Mallorquí, a historic painting for the auditorium of the University of Barcelona or the canvas for the neo-Gothic chapel of the Torre de Can Granada.
The painting now in auction represents Dalmau II, Viscount of Rocabertí (985-1017), a nobiliary title granted in the year 842 by the Emperor Charlemagne in favor of Hugo de Rocabertí, Lord of the Rocabertí Castle, and which is currently held by Pedro de Montaner y Cerdá, Count of Perelada.
