Josep Berga i Boix

His early education came from two local monks and his first exposure to art probably came at the farmhouse owned by his parents' employer.

As a result of some work he did for a Carlist newspaper, he was briefly forced to take refuge in Perpignan after the Revolution of 1868, where he met Joaquim Vayreda and was introduced to the Barbizon school of landscape painting.

He settled there, however, and worked with Vayreda to create a local style of painting, which showed the influence of Barbizon as well as the Norwich school.

In 1877, he was finally named Director of the drawing school; a position that occupied most of his energies for the rest of his life.

[2] In 1880, together with Vayreda and others, he created a special workshop for religious images; "Els Sants d'Olot", which gained an international reputation.