FRANCESC GIMENO I ARASA (Tortosa, Tarragona, 1858 - Barcelona, 1927). Untitled. Oil on canvas. Signed in the lower right corner. Size: 19,5 x 31,5 cm; 40,5 x 53 cm (frame). Painter and draughtsman, Francesc Gimeno began his training in Tortosa at the age of fourteen. In 1880 he settled in Barcelona and worked as a decorative painter. In 1884 he moved to Madrid, where he completed his training with Carlos de Haes and studied the works in the Prado Museum. On his return to Barcelona in 1889, he suddenly rejected the contracts he was offered and returned to decorative painting. Gimeno remained almost always on the fringes of the commercial art world. For most of his life, he kept away from official circles and painted what was closest to him, his family and himself, without ever neglecting landscape painting. He took part in a few exhibitions, winning prizes such as the honorary diplomas at the Barcelona exhibition of 1894 and the Madrid National Exhibition of 1904, but his works were frequently rejected by the juries. Nevertheless, Gimeno also had a small circle of admirers. The critic Romà Jori, the painter Ignasi Mallol and the gallery owner Josep Dalmau organised the painter s first solo exhibition in 1915. The exhibition was a critical success and for the first time his artistic work was recognised. Recognition of Gimeno s work grew in the last years of his life until it culminated in the homage paid to him at the Sala Parés at Christmas 1925. The MACBA dedicated an exhibition to him in 1978, and in 2006 the Museo Nacional de Arte de Cataluña held the first truly anthological exhibition devoted to his work. Gimeno is represented in the Museo del Prado, the MACBA in Barcelona, the Museo de Montserrat, the Museo Nacional de Arte de Cataluña, the Francisco Godía Foundation and the J. Sala collection, as well as in several important private collections.