Francisco Millares

FRANCESC MIRALLES I GALAUP (Valencia, 1848 - Barcelona, 1901).
"In the park", 1883.
Oil on wood.
Signed in the lower right corner.
Measurements: 40 x 32 cm; 54 x 47 cm (frame).
This painting is a magnificent example of the language of Miralles, centered mainly in costumbrista themes of the bourgeois life and of the fin-de-siècle high society: a bourgeois costumbrista scene, captured with an elegant style and of marked atmospheric sensibility, with a descriptive brushstroke in the textures and loose in the backgrounds, expressive and exuberant. Thus, we see a refined treatment of the environment that surrounds him, of the bourgeoisie with whom he lives, in a work marked by the precious treatment of the material, the grace of his drawing and the delicacy of his lighting.
Francisco Miralles was trained in Barcelona in the workshop of Ramón Martí Alsina, where he was a fellow disciple of the members of the first generation of Catalan realists. Little is preserved of Miralles' production in this first stage, although the dozen paintings that we have tell us of a young painter who quickly learned to treat the figure with mastery, still little interested in the landscape. Settled in Paris since the mid-1860s (around 1865-66), it is possible that he studied with Courbet on the advice of Martí Alsina, who also trained with the French master. Due to these influences, his youthful style, until the late seventies, is still vigorously realistic. Later he evolved towards a style of feminine elegance, typically fin-de-siècle, with a Fortunyist-influenced technique. In Paris he popularized a refined style, centered mainly on costumbrist themes of bourgeois life and high society, mainly featuring female characters. In Paris Miralles lived a free and carefree life, at first depending economically on his family, and later sustaining himself by his own means, thanks to the sales of his paintings that he made through the most prominent dealer in Paris at the time, Goupil. At the same time, he participated in the Salon des Artistes Français between 1875 and 1896. He made several trips to Barcelona, and in fact he exhibited from 1877 at the Sala Parés in that city. After several years between Paris and Barcelona, he returned to Barcelona in 1893. Francisco Miralles is represented in the MACBA, the Abbey of Montserrat and the Círculo del Liceo de Barcelona, as well as in important private collections.