59 - JOSÉ ROYO (Valencia, 1945).

JOSÉ ROYO (Valencia, 1945). "Motherhood." Oil on Tablex. Signed in the lower right corner. Measurements: 33 x 25 cm; 56 x 48 cm (frame). A precocious painter, José Royo began his drawing studies at the age of just seven. After studying with the finest teachers in his city, he enrolled at the San Carlos School of Fine Arts, and ultimately completed his studies by traveling to the world’s great museums, immersing himself particularly in the works of Goya, Velázquez, and the Impressionist masters. These influences shaped his artistic development to the point that he himself became a master of Post-Impressionism, an heir to Renoir, Sorolla, Monet, and Bonnard. The decisive turning point in his life came when the painter and his family decided to move to the countryside; in a small village near Valencia, Royo built the house that would bring light and color to his work—a house that would be an exact replica of his iconography and vice versa—a house full of geraniums and orange trees where the light is beautiful at every moment of the day, in a different corner each time. However, the essence of Mediterranean culture that this artist carried within him demanded, with ever-greater insistence, that he paint the sea. Royo then found his second paradise in Mallorca, at Cala Salmunia, where he has been traveling every summer to paint since the 1970s. At the same time, his career grew increasingly successful, first in Spain and soon throughout Europe. The Mediterranean charm shaped by Royo’s virtuosity also captivated the Japanese market and later the South American market, although it has been, above all, his success in the United States that has established this artist as one of the key figures of our time. Furthermore, Royo’s thirst for exploration has led him to venture into other fields such as sculpture and screen printing, always accompanied by public acclaim. He has also distinguished himself as a portraitist, creating portraits of the presidents and senior justices of the Spanish Supreme Court, members of the aristocracy, and His Majesty King Juan Carlos I for the Spanish Embassy in Japan. Royo’s work is currently represented in the Diocesan Museum of Barcelona, among other collections.