JOAN SERRA MELGOSA (Lérida, 1899 - Barcelona, 1970). "Vista Calella playa" (Calella Beach View). Oil on canvas. Signed in the lower right corner. With Sala Parés label on the back. Size: 54 x 73 cm; 70 x 89 cm (frame). Joan Serra Melgosa trained at the Escuela de la Lonja in Barcelona, where he was a disciple of Francesc Labarta. A member of the group Los Evolucionistas, he exhibited for the first time in 1918. He painted mainly intense self-portraits, still lifes and landscapes, in earthy tones and a nervous style dominated, however, by a constructive rigour with Cézannian roots. In 1925 he travelled to Madrid, where he became particularly interested in El Greco, and two years later he spent a few months in Paris. He was closely associated with the Sala Parés in Barcelona, where he exhibited regularly from 1927. Sick with tuberculosis, in 1930 he retired to several mountain sanatoriums, where he moved even closer to landscape painting. He exhibited at the Sala Parés and in Madrid, Bilbao, Valencia and San Sebastián, as well as taking part in exhibitions in Paris, London, Pittsburgh, Buenos Aires, Montevideo and Caracas. His awards include the Barcelona City Council prize in 1931 and the Jaume Morera gold medal in 1950. He is represented at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Barcelona and the Museum of Fine Arts in Lérida.