Emilio Sala Francés (1850-1910) - La joven de la barca

EMILIO SALA FRANCÉS (Alcoy, 1850 – Madrid, 1910)

Oil on board. Dimensions: 24 × 30 cm (without frame); 37 × 43 cm with frame. Frame included.

Delicate riverside scene with a young person in a boat, executed with Sala's characteristic refinement: precise drawing, fluid brushwork, and a harmonious palette of nacreous greens and pinks that envelop the figure in a serene fin de siècle atmosphere. The treatment of the water and transparencies, the touches of light on the shore, and the balance between vegetation and architecture create a very poetic and balanced composition, of high collector's quality. Signed in the lower right corner.

Artist biography

Emilio Sala Francés is one of the prominent names in Spanish painting of the second half of the 19th century. Born in Alcoy, he trained at the Real Academia de San Carlos in Valencia and, from 1871, worked in Madrid, where he studied the masters of the Prado and regularly participated in the National Exhibitions of Fine Arts, earning significant awards. He cultivated historical painting, portraiture, and genre scenes with a refined sense of color and light, traits that connect him to the Valencian luminist tradition. He traveled to Rome and Paris, cities that solidified his reputation and expanded his thematic repertoire. Part of his work is preserved in public collections such as the Museo del Prado and the Museo de Bellas Artes de Valencia, as well as notable private collections. His legacy combines technical virtuosity, compositional elegance, and a modern sensibility that place him among the great Spanish painters of his time.