Salon Pedal is a color lithograph on paper designed in 1897 by the Catalan artist Alexandre de Riquer. The print's design evokes the decorative style seen in Modernisme art. The artwork is in the collection of Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, in Barcelona. History Els Quatre Gats is a famous cafe and considered as one of the main generators of the cultural movement known as Modernisme. It was the scene of lively conversations between Catalan artists Santiago Rusinol, Ramon Casas, Maurice Utrillo, Pablo Picasso and Isidre Nonell. Casas decorated the cafe with two large paintings: "one, entitled Ramon Casas and Pere Romeu on a Tandem, features the painter with Pere Romeu, the owner of the cafe, on a bicycle; the other depicts the car which Casas, one of the first car owners in Catalonia, drove himself. These works represent the beginning of Modernisme, and the movement's interest in "mechanical innovations and the fascination of the painters and sculptors of this century for everything that went on around them. This is how sporting events became subjects for their works." Description Giving the poster its allure, a female cyclist dressed in a black and white dress with hints of red details on her sash and bow, is the main focus. Framing this central figure in the simplistic composition is a rich border of floral ornamentation. Taking inspiration from English graphic art, "Riquer incorporated elements from many diverse influences; this ability to assimilate a range of styles helped him produce highly creative works and put an end to the banal, literary quality that had dominated poster aesthetics until then. As an example and as others have already noted, Salon Pedal, evokes Japanese printmaking." Riquer combined the aesthetics of the Gothic and japonism, which results to an "expressive quality of line enclosing flat surfaces imbued with subtle harmonies of color that gives the composition an antirealist feel in line with idealized, symbolist subject matter." Alexandre de Riquer Alexandre de Riquer i Ynglada, 7th Count of Casa Dávalos (born May 3, 1856 – November 13, 1920), was a versatile artistic intellectual and Catalan Spanish designer, illustrator, painter, engraver, writer, and poet. He was one of the leading figures of Modernism in Catalonia. Riquer studied at Béziers, located in France from 1869 to 1871. For his interest in drawing classes, he enrolled in the School of Fine Arts in Toulouse of Languedoc. In the year 1894,