Emilio Grau Sala

EMILIO GRAU SALA (Barcelona, 1911 - 1977).
"Woman in interior with views of Notre Dame".
Gouache and gouache on cardboard.
Without signature.
Measurements: 70,5 x 50,5 cm; 87 x 72 cm (frame).

This work summarizes with special freshness the poetic and elegant universe of Emilio Grau Sala, one of the most refined Spanish artists of the Parisian exile. The scene combines intimacy and urban landscape in a vibrant composition.

The motif of the female interior with an open window is recurrent in his Parisian production and acts as a bridge between the private and the urban, between memory and the present.

Grau Sala trained at the School of Fine Arts in Barcelona. After exhibiting for the first time in 1930, he moved to Paris during the Civil War, where he won the Carnegie Prize and consolidated his own style influenced by impressionism and fauvism. He returned to Barcelona in 1963 and, faithful to his colorful and elegant language, continued to work until his death. Works by Emilio Grau Sala are kept in the National Art Museum of Catalonia, the Esteban Vicente Museum of Contemporary Art and the Óscar Domínguez Institute of Contemporary Art and Culture.