Francisco Gimeno Arasa

Biography After completing his primary education, in 1880, he moved to Barcelona, where he worked as a decorative painter in the studios of Manuel Marqués (born c. 1840). At the same time, he and a few friends operated a small art academy. With the assistance of a lithographer named Francisco Tió, he was able to move to Madrid in 1884, to study at the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando with the landscape painter, Carlos de Haes, and make copies of Velázquez at the Museo del Prado.

In 1887, he moved to Torroella de Montgrí and, two years later, settled on the Costa Brava, where he painted maritime scenes. In 1888, he received honorable mention at the Exposición Universal de Barcelona. Upon returning to Barcelona the following year, he shut himself up in an old decorator's studio and, for unknown reasons, refused to participate in the artistic community there.

It was not until 1915 that, strongly urged by his friends, he held a small private exhibition at the . It was then that he reestablished contact with a childhood friend, Doctor , who became his patron.

In 2006, the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya organized an exhibit entitled "Francesc Gimeno, un artista maleït" (A painter cursed/damned).

His eldest son, also became a painter, as well as a sculptor and art critic.

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