Francisco Miralles

FRANCISCO MIRALLES I GALAUP (Valencia, 1848 - Barcelona, 1901).
"Doctor Salvador Andreu Grau, 1886.
Oil on canvas.
Signed and dated in the upper margin.
It has missing paint on the top and missing in the frame.
Measurements: 132 x 90 cm; 152 x 114 cm (frame).

Portrait of an essential figure for the city of Barcelona, Salvador Andreu Grau (1841-1928), a doctor in Pharmacy remembered for investing part of his patrimony in real estate that contributed to hasten the creation of the Rambla de Cataluña. He was also the driving force behind the Tibidabo Amusement Park, the funicular railway and the Tramway Blau. Here, the great portraitist Francisco Miralles captures the physiognomy and the sober elegance of the character with great verism.

Francisco Miralles trained in Barcelona in the studio of Ramón Martí Alsina, where he was a fellow disciple of the first generation of Catalan realists. Settled in Paris between 1863 and 1866, it is possible that he studied with Courbet on the advice of Alsina, who also trained with him. Due to these influences, his youthful style, until the end of the 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. He participated in the Salon des Artistes Français, in Paris, between 1875 and 1896, and exhibited from 1877 in the Sala Parés in Barcelona. 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.