Francesc Gimeno

FRANCESC GIMENO I ARASA (Tortosa, Tarragona, 1858 - Barcelona, 1927).
"Boats".
Charcoal on paper.
Signed in the lower right corner.
Measurements: 20 x 30 cm; 40 x 50 cm.

Painter and draftsman, Francesc Gimeno began his training in Tortosa at the age of fourteen. In 1880 he settles in Barcelona and works as a painter-decorator. In 1884 he moved to Madrid, where he completed his training with Carlos de Haes and studied the works of the Prado Museum. On his return to Barcelona, in 1889, he suddenly rejected the contracts offered to him, and devoted himself once again to decorative painting. Gimeno remained almost always on the fringes of the commercial art world. During most of his life, away from official circles, he painted what was closest to him, his family and himself, without ever neglecting the landscape. He participated in some exhibitions, winning prizes such as honorary diplomas in the Barcelona exhibition of 1894 and the National Exhibition of Madrid in 1904, but his works were frequently rejected by the juries. Nevertheless, Gimeno also had a small circle of admirers. The critic Romà Jori, the painter Ignasi Mallol and the gallery owner Josep Dalmau organized the painter's first solo exhibition in 1915. The exhibition was a critical success and for the first time his artistic work was recognized. The recognition of Gimeno's work grew in the last years of his life until it culminated in the homage that, at Christmas 1925, was dedicated to him in the Sala Parés. The MACBA dedicated an exhibition to him in 1978, and in 2006 the Museo Nacional de Arte de Cataluña held the first truly anthological exhibition dedicated to his work. Gimeno is represented in the Prado Museum, the MACBA in Barcelona, the Montserrat Museum, the National Art Museum of Catalonia, the Francisco Godía Foundation and the J. Sala collection, as well as in several important private collections.