Emili Grau Sala (Barcelona, 1911 - 1975) “Young girl with mandolin” Gouache, oil, and ink on wood. Signed and dated 1933. Signed and dated again on the reverse. 23 x 19 cm. Emili Grau Sala, a renowned Catalan master, was a versatile artist who worked in various media, including painting, drawing, illustration, decoration, and engraving. He is particularly recognized for his realistic scenes, which have earned him the distinction of being 'remembered for his magnificent realistic scenes,' as acknowledged by the Royal Academy of History. His artistic career was marked, as was common in Spain at the time, by the outbreak of the Civil War in 1936, which forced him to emigrate to Paris. He had previously participated in several exhibitions in various galleries in Barcelona, holding his first solo exhibition at the Badriñas Gallery in 1930. He contributed illustrations to numerous magazines and programs, including those of the renowned Ballets Russes de Monte-Carlo. His talents also graced several theater and film sets, particularly those of the critically acclaimed Doña Rosita la soltera o el lenguaje de las flores (1935) by Federico García Lorca. From 1936 onward, when he relocated to Paris with his wife, the Impressionist style of his early works garnered him a certain degree of renown in the City of Light. We are pleased to transcribe Dr. Jesús Lázaro Docio's description of his artistic evolution for the Royal Academy of History: 'Without straying from his fidelity to the natural model and within a gentle and poetic style, he depicted intimate interior scenes or urban landscapes using a loose and spontaneous technique in which the artist allowed large patches of color to burst into the compositions to create a universe full of chromatic luminosity and charged with intense lyricism.' His personal collection is preserved in the National Archive of Catalonia.   Reference bibliography: - Lázaro Docio, Jesús. (s.f.). “Emilio Grau Sala”. Real Academia de la Historia: DB~e.  https://dbe.rah.es/biografias/11281/emilio-grau-sala