Cristóbal Toral

CRISTÓBAL TORAL (Cádiz, 1940).
"Female nude", 1965.
Mixed media on paper.
Signed and dated in the lower margin.
Measurements: 43 x 30 cm; 61 x 48 cm (frame).

A painter of international renown, Cristóbal Toral spent his childhood and adolescence in Malaga, where his family moved shortly after his birth. After beginning his training in 1958 at the School of Arts and Crafts in Antequera, in 1959 he entered the School of Fine Arts of Santa Isabel de Hungría, in Seville. In 1962 he moved to Madrid to further his training at the San Fernando School of Fine Arts, and the following year he won the gold medal at the Exhibition of Pensioned Landscape Artists of El Paular. He finished his studies in 1964, obtaining the National End of Career Award and a scholarship from the Ministry to prepare a chair at the School of Fine Arts, being soon after appointed professor at San Fernando. Since then, his work has been increasingly recognized and awarded, and in 1967 he abandons teaching to devote himself exclusively to the pictorial practice.