70 - RICARDO VERDE RUBIO (Valencia, 1876–1954).

RICARDO VERDE RUBIO (Valencia, 1876–1954). "Characters." Gouache on paper. Signed. Measurements: 29 x 21 cm; 48 x 40 cm (frame). A painter, printmaker, and draftsman, he trained at the School of Fine Arts in Valencia and traveled to London and Paris, where he absorbed new influences that would shape his later series of paintings. He began with portraiture, a genre he practiced for most of his artistic career, and for which he was recognized. He also created landscapes and folk scenes in the style of Sorolla, as well as still lifes and nude figures influenced by the artist Titian. He also worked as an engraver, poster artist, and illustrator; his works in these fields already hinted at a fantastical, visionary, and politically engaged form of expressionism, as exemplified by this piece. He balanced his artistic career with his work as a professor at the San Carlos Academy of Fine Arts. He maintained close ties with the avant-garde artists of the 1930s who were based in Valencia at the time, with whom he participated in exhibitions organized by the Ateneo Mercantil, at the Sala Blava, as well as at the Círculo de Bellas Artes in Valencia and the Spanish Pavilion at the International Exposition in Paris. His works are housed in the Museum of Fine Arts in Valencia, the Museo Popular in Villafamés, the Museum of Castellón, and the Museum of Modern Art in Madrid.