Emilio Grau Sala

EMILIO GRAU SALA (Barcelona, 1911 - Paris, 1975).
"Paysage a le Vielle Ford", 1957.
Oil on canvas.
Signed on front and back. Dated and titled on the back.
Attached certificate issued by J.L. Field in 1977.
Measurements: 33 x 55 cm; 69,5 x 92,5 cm (frame).

This work represents the full maturity of Emilio Grau Sala, a moment in which his pictorial language moves with absolute freedom between lyrical figuration and a vibrant almost abstract construction of the landscape. The scene immerses us in a rural environment where architecture, vegetation and daily life merge in a dynamic superimposition of planes, dissolving the traditional perspective in favor of a purely emotional visual rhythm. In this scenario, the old Ford -which gives the piece its title- emerges as a powerful narrative anchor point: a vestige of modernity organically integrated into nature, acting as a bridge between tradition and the dynamism of modern life.

The palette, of an overflowing intensity, bathes the canvas with a Mediterranean luminosity of post-impressionist heritage, where color and gesture become the true protagonists of the composition. Each brushstroke seems to celebrate the vitality of a space that is not only observed, but deeply lived. This piece, of exceptional technical workmanship and great expressive force, is a fundamental testimony of Grau Sala's universe. It is a work that appeals directly to the collector's sensibility of the School of Paris and post-war painting, standing out for its capacity to reinterpret the landscape under a poetic, modern and universal gaze.

Grau Sala was 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.