JOSÉ ROYO (Valencia, 1945). "Young woman embroidering". Oil on canvas. Signed in the lower left corner. Measurements: 61 x 38 cm; 90,5 x 38 cm (frame). A precocious painter, José Royo began his drawing studies when he was only seven years old. After studying with the best masters of his city, he entered the School of Fine Arts of San Carlos, and finally completed his studies travelling around the great museums of the world, immersing himself especially in Goya, Velázquez and the impressionist masters. These influences marked his pictorial development to the point of becoming a master of post-impressionism himself, heir to Renoir, Sorolla, Monet and Bonnard. The decisive change 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 colour to his work, which would be an exact replica of his iconography and vice versa, a house full of geraniums and orange trees where the light is precious at every moment of the day, in a different corner. However, the essence of the Mediterranean culture that this artist carries within him demanded, more and more insistently, to paint the sea. Royo then found his second paradise in Mallorca, in the Salmunia cove, where he has moved every summer to paint since the seventies. At the same time, his career became increasingly successful, first in Spain and soon throughout Europe. The Mediterranean charm shaped by Royo s virtuosity also seduced the Japanese and then the South American market, although it was above all his success in the United States that consolidated this artist as one of the key figures of our time. On the other hand, Royo s eagerness to investigate has led him to explore other fields such as sculpture or silkscreen printing, always accompanied by public recognition. He has also excelled as a portrait painter, portraying the presidents and High Magistrates of the Spanish Supreme Court, aristocratic personalities and His Majesty Don Juan Carlos I for the Spanish Embassy in Japan. Royo is currently represented in the Diocesan Museum of Barcelona, among other collections.