ISMAEL DE LA SERNA (Guadix, Granada, 1898- Paris, 1968)."STILL LIFE WITH SITAR", 1930.Watercolour on cardboard.Signed and dated in the lower right-hand corner.Size: 48 x 63,5 cm; 79 x 93 cm (frame).Ismael Torcuato González de la Serna, painter often cited as Ismael de la Serna, cousin of the great Ramón Gómez, began his art studies in Granada and finished them in Madrid. At the Ateneo in the capital he presented an exhibition of paintings notably influenced by Impressionism. A childhood friend of García Lorca, he illustrated the poet's first book, Impresiones y paisajes ("Impressions and Landscapes", 1918). In 1921 he moved to Paris, where he met Juan Gris, Julio González, Pablo Gargallo, Paul Guillaume and above all Picasso, who not only influenced his work but also became a sort of protector. Ismael González de la Serna shared a painting studio with Ramón Acín for a few months in 1926. The influence and avant-garde pictorial relations of the Andalusian artist were fruitfully assimilated by Acín, leaving evidence of this in his later work. González de la Serna, who militated in styles such as impressionism, cubism or a very personal expressionism, exhibited successfully in Paris (1927, 1930, 1936), Berlin (1927), Brussels (1928), Copenhagen (1932), Granada (1933) and Mexico at different times in the 1940s and 1950s. His paintings are hung in important European museums. He produced illustrations for influential magazines such as Cahiers d'Art and also collaborated with writers such as Ernesto Giménez Caballero in whose work Hercules Playing Dice (1928), De la Serna published his painting Varieté. The journalist and writer César González Ruano (Madrid, 1903-1965), a friend of Ismael de la Serna, met him again in Paris, almost at the end of his life: "(...) he lived a little by memory. Always well dressed, far from the bohemian cafés, a little mysterious.... Ismael de la Serna was a curious survival of many things".Dimensions: 48 x 63.5 cm; 79 x 93 cm (frame).