Enrique Pertegas Ferrer

ENRIQUE PERTEGÁS FERRER, (Valencia, 1894 - 1962).
"The model", 1955.
Oil on canvas.
Signed and dated in the lower right corner.
Measurements: 73 x 54 cm.

Enrique Pertegás Ferrer, was an outstanding Spanish illustrator, painter and cartoonist. Pertegás was part of the first generation of Valencian comic authors, along with figures such as Luis Dubón and Juan Pérez del Muro.

He began his career as an illustrator in satirical magazines in the 1910s, standing out in publications such as La Traca and El Chorizo Japonés. In 1915 and 1916 he directed Cuento del Dumenche. During the 1930s, he worked for the Guerri publishing house, illustrating bulletins and then as a cartoonist after the Civil War, creating series such as La guerra de los planetas and Ultus, el rey de la selva (1943).

In 1945, he drew the series Silac, el Hombre-León for Editorial Valenciana, S.A., which stood out for its innovative graphic quality for the time. Pertegás was described as "Valencianist and left-wing" politically, while his work was recognized for its modernity and his approach to social issues, especially in relation to sex, which made him one of the most popular Valencian cartoonists with the highest graphic quality in his works, according to journalist Vicent Baydal.

The critic Pedro Porcel compared him to "great Catalan authors, such as Junceda, all of them coming from modernism".