Francisco PARERA - Portrait of a young Spanish woman

François PARERA
Barcelona, circa 1850 - Paris, circa 1930
Oil on canvas
72 x 52 cm
Signed and dated lower left "F. Parera / 1922".

A fine oval painting by a great portraitist of the Belle Epoque, who remained active until the 1920s. In a style that was both realistic and pleasing, Francisco Parera knew how to render the truth of his models while preserving their charm.
Francisco Parera y Munté was a Barcelona-born painter active in the Belle Epoque as a celebrity portraitist. He was one of the Spanish painters who came to work in France in the 1880s. After studying at the San Fernando Academy of Fine Arts in Madrid, he established himself as a portrait painter in Barcelona. He was awarded the Cross of the Order of Isabel la Católica. Parera then moved to Paris. During the Belle Epoque, his studio was frequented by leading figures from the political, literary and artistic worlds. He exhibited regularly at the Paris Salon until 1920.
Famous portraits include the Bishop of Barcelona (1875), King Alfonso, General Maques del Duero, Italian musicians Franco Faccio and Arrigo Boito, Catalan actor Teodoro Bonaplata and French writer Frédéric Mistral (1914), as well as several Latin American presidents.
He also occasionally painted portraits of young women with charming expressions, such as this flower seller, this "young peasant woman" with a fruit basket, or our painting of a young Spanish woman with a beautiful fan, dressed in a beautiful black dress with floral decoration, and a comb in her hair.

Ref: HZPWYFCLFA