Emilio Grau Sala - Colorism & Modern Art

Emilio (Emi) Grau Sala (1911, Barcelona - 1975, Paris) was a Catalan painter. He studied at the Fine Art Academy of Barcelona and came to France in 1932. He was a famous colorist (oil painting, watercolor and pastel) and illustrator. In the French Salon "Comparaisons", he was a member of the group of Maurice Boitel.
"A School of Paris painter who never abandoned lyrical figurative and landscape subjects, Emilio Grau-Sala was born in Barcelona and studied at the School of Fine Arts in his native town. Beginning his public career in 1929, he moved to Paris in 1932 and exhibited at the Salon du Printemps.His lively and graceful street scenes, circus rings and interiors accorded well with current sensibilities in the Parisian art center, and Grau-Sala quickly gained an international reputation. In 1937 he was awarded a Carnegie prize in Pittsburgh, and his regular exhibitions in the United States made him as sought-after overseas as he was in Europe.
In addition to his work as a painter, Grau-Sala was also recognized as an important illustrator, decorator, and pastel painter, illustrating numerous fine editions of volumes by authors such as Flaubert, Baudelaire, and Maupassant.
Leisure, entertainment, and elegant domesticity are Grau Sala’s most frequently treated themes: people conversing at the racetrack or circus, splendid parties, or domestic scenes in well-appointed interiors. He depicted his pleasant scenes with an intense, broken color and sparkling, impastic surface heighten the joyous quality so typical of his work."(rogallery.com)

Joseph Kleitsch

Joseph Kleitsch (1882–1931) was a Hungarian-American portrait and plein air painter who holds a high place in the early California School of Impressionism.
Born in Banad, Hungary on June 6, 1882, Kleitsch began painting at the age of seven. He later pursued art training in Budapest, Munich and Paris. He immigrated to the United States in 1912 and two years later, on July 22, 1914, he married Edna Gregatis of Chicago, Illinois with whom he would have his only child, Eugene. Influenced by his visits to the famous museums of Europe, Kleitsch continued with his love of portrait and figuritive painting after relocating to California. There he rose to the challenge of capturing his new environment's brilliant light and diverse landscape. Kleitsch fell in love with the rustic artist village of Laguna Beach, moving there in 1920. Notable works depicted the town's eucalyptus lined streets, the crashing waves of the Pacific coastline and the nearby Mission San Juan Capistrano. Kleitsch became a significant resident of the Laguna Beach Artists Colony. Arthur Millier of the Los Angeles Times in 1922 was quoted saying of Kleitsch "he was a born colorist; he seemed to play on canvas with the abandon of a gypsy violinist". On November 16, 1931, at the age of forty-nine, Kleitsch died of a heart attack in front of the courthouse in Santa Ana, California.Two years after his death, Kleitsch's widow opened the Joseph Kleitsch Fine Arts Gallery in Laguna Beach. Wikipedia