RICARDO CANALS LLAMBÍ (Barcelona, 1876 - 1931). "Female... Lot 23

RICARDO CANALS LLAMBÍ (Barcelona, 1876 - 1931). "Female portrait. Oil on panel. Signed in the lower right corner. Measurements: 46.5 x 39 cm; 70 x 61.5 cm (frame). Canals was a painter, draughtsman and engraver, member of the "Colla del Safrà" (Saffron Group, so called because of its peculiar chromatic palette) together with the painters Nonell, Mir, Pichot and Vallmitjana. He began his studies at the La Lonja School in Barcelona, but abandoned them shortly afterwards to continue painting in the street. A friend of Isidre Nonell, in 1896 they travelled together to Caldes de Boí, and the following year they moved to Paris. In the French capital they both exhibited at the Chez Dosbourg gallery with great success. Nonell returned to Barcelona and Canals stayed on to work for the dealer Durand-Ruel, the dealer of the Impressionists, representing artists such as Corot, Monet and Pissarro. He was a personal friend of Picasso at this time, who portrayed his wife. He took part in the French Salons of 1897 and 1898, as well as in the exhibition held in 1902 at the Durand-Ruel gallery in New York. In 1907 he returned permanently to Barcelona, where he presided over the association Las Artes y los Artistas. From then on he made several trips around Spain, visiting Madrid, Seville and Granada. From then on his works had a distinctly Spanish flavour, combined with his modern language. It was precisely this Spanish theme that brought him his greatest success in Paris, although in his later years he evolved towards a style of painting closer to noucentisme. He also distinguished himself as a portraitist. His last important work, before his premature death, was the decoration of the ceiling of one of the halls of Barcelona City Hall. In 1933, two years after his death, the Sala Parés in Barcelona held an extensive exhibition in homage to him. Much of his work is kept in the National Art Museum of Catalonia, but it is also in the collections of the Abbey of Montserrat, the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum and the National Museum of Fine Arts in Chile.