Benet Mercadé was from Emporda, the son of a decorative painter, gilder and votive painter. He trained at the School of Fine Arts in Barcelona – where he was appointed professor in 1882 – and the School of Fine Arts San Fernando in Madrid. He started as an ornamental painter and worked with daguerreotypes. He travels and participates in exhibitions in Madrid, Paris where he won the grand prize at the exhibition in 1866, and Rome. When he returned to Barcelona, Mercadé met Mr. Leopoldo Gil, an expert collector of old paintings, who gave his workshop to the artist unconditionally. As students who learned general drawing at the School of Fine Arts, there are Lluís Graner and En Ros i Güell. And José Ma Sert who visited him in the studio.
Influence of Nazareneism in his work and style, especially in the fields of composition and subject matter. His painting is also nourished by realism, and is characterized by sobriety, often in historical scenes, portraits and religious scenes in interiors.
This small work of great chromatic austerity, Peasant Interior, is a realistic and genre painting that was owned by the painter’s nephew, Mr. Andreu Serrà, who received it as a present, from the hands of the painter himself.
In the middle of the 19th century, artists began to travel, sometimes on their own initiative, sometimes because of the offer of travel grants and pensions abroad. The consequence is the importation of the aesthetic ideas that promote the arts in Rome and Paris and stimulate artistic awareness.