Emilio Sala Francés

EMILIO SALA FRANCÉS (Alcoy, Alicante, 1850 - Madrid, 1910).
"Girl with dogs".
Oil on canvas.
No stretcher frame.
Signed in the lower left corner.
Measurements: 28 x 20 cm; 46 x 39 cm (frame).
Emilio Sala was formed in the School of Fine Arts of San Carlos of Valencia, where he was a disciple of his cousin, the painter Plácido Francés. In 1871 he made his first trip to Madrid, where he devoted himself to studying and copying the works of the masters of the Prado Museum, especially those of Velázquez. At that time he began his participation in the National Exhibitions of Fine Arts, obtaining first medals in the editions of 1878 and 1881. In 1885 he travels to Rome on a scholarship to study the Italian Renaissance, and there he befriends Francisco Padilla, Federico de Madrazo and Joaquín Sorolla. Later he exchanged his scholarship and moved to Paris, where he took part in the Universal Exhibition of 1889, obtaining a second medal. In 1891 he obtained the Gold Medal at the Berlin Exposition. He participated in the Salon des Beaux-Arts of the Champs Elysées for several years, with literary works, genre paintings and some portraits. From 1890 he moved away from history painting, much in demand in Spain but little valued in France, and devoted himself to genre painting, landscape and illustration, in publications such as "Blanco y Negro" or "La Ilustración Española y Americana". On his return to Spain he settled permanently in Madrid, and in 1906 he was created for him the chair of Theory and Aesthetics of Color at the School of Fine Arts of San Fernando. Among his disciples were María Blanchard and Cecilio Pla, and he published "La gramática del color", a work that was used as a textbook in the Fine Arts Schools of Madrid and Barcelona. In the capital Sala opened his own studio, and took part in the decoration of the Palaces of Anglada and Mazarredo. He was appointed academician of merit at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome, and received the Cross of St. Michael (Munich, 1885) and the Grand Cross of the Order of Isabella the Catholic (1899). Emilio Sala's work is present in the Hispanic Society of New York, the Prado Museum, the Museum of Modern Art in Madrid, the Municipal Fine Arts Museums of Granada, Valencia, l'Empordà, Cáceres, Santander and Málaga, the Lázaro Galdiano, the Camón Aznar, the Theater Museum in Almagro and the National Museum of Fine Arts in Santiago de Chile, among many others.