The brush and the shadow Antoni Caba lived his life within the light and dark of Barcelona. His early years in the 1850s were spent at the Escola de la Llotja, sitting before the lessons of Pau Milà i Fontanals and Claudi Lorenzale. He later moved to Madrid to study at the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, where Federico de Madrazo guided his hand. A period in Paris brought him under the direction of Charles Gleyre at the Académie des Beaux-Arts, a time that helped shape how he handled the weight of oil on canvas. His work often rests in the quiet space between light and deep s…