FRANCISCO MIRALLES PAINTINGS FOR SALE & BIOGRAPHY

FRANCISCO MIRALLES

Spanish, 1848–1901

BIOGRAPHY
Born in Valencia, Spain, Francisco Miralles y Galup began his training as a draughtsman under Ramon Martí y Alsina in Barcelona starting in 1862. From 1866 to 1893, he lived in Paris, where he got to know fellow Spanish painters Ignacio Zuloaga Santiago Rusiñol. Here he studied with Arturo Canela, whose studio became a meeting place for Catalán artists in the city.

He had commercial dealings with the Paris dealer Adolphe Goupil and Enrique Gomez, brother of the painter Simon Gomez, who exported a large number of his works to America. Miralles’ association with Goupil was extremely fortuitous; the art dealer commissioned several works for Miralles and was also agent to the artist’s academic contemporaries including Giovanni Boldini, William-Adolphe Bouguereau, and Jean-Léon Gérôme. Miralles soon exhibited regularly at the Paris Salons from 1875 to 1896, and the Salon des Artistes Français in Paris, and also participated in the exhibition of the national fine arts society, Barcelona, 1866; and the Salon Parès in Barcelona from 1877. He won a silver medal in Dieppe in 1875 and in Angoulême in 1877, and a gold medal in Montpellier in 1885. In addition, through his participation in numerous international exhibitions in London, Berlin, and America, Miralles gained visibility and popularity as collectors began to amass his work in the late nineteenth century.

First influenced by the realism of Courbet, Miralles soon went on to develop a distinct Impressionist style comparable to that of Eugène Boudin, Jules Bastien-Lepage and Alfred Stevens. While he painted figures, portraits, landscapes, and seascapes, Miralles is known for his idyllic genre scenes of the bourgeoisie under the Second Empire. Beautiful and fashionable women were the central subjects of his work as a whole. Examples include: Intimacy; In the Park; Barcelona Beach; In the Streets of Longchamps; Old England; Game of Croquet; and The Artist's Sister Playing the Harp.

Museum Collections:
Musée Carnavalet, Paris
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Brest, Brest
Museu d’Art Modern de Barcelona, Barcelona

Mark Murray Fine Paintings is a New York gallery specializing in buying and selling 19th century and early 20th century artwork.

Please contact us if you are interested in selling your Francisco Miralles paintings or other artwork from the 19th century and early 20th century.