MANUEL FELIÚ DE LEMUS (Barcelona, 1865 - Paris, 1922). "Portrait of a Japanese Woman. Oil on paper. With label on the back of the Sala Nonell (Barcelona). Size: 23 x 38 cm; 60 x 78 cm (frame). Female portrait, whose protagonist is captured only through her face. In spite of the few references introduced by the author, the woman s pen and the background in which she is inserted, contextualise her as a Japanese woman. During this period, painters produced a multitude of portraits of the Orient and imagined pasts, recreated to the last millimetre but ultimately unknown and idealised. During the second half of the 19th century, especially in Barcelona, many of the painters who travelled to the Middle East in search of this invented reality discovered a different and new country, which stood out with its peculiarities above the clichés and prejudices of Europeans. Manuel Feliú de Lemus was a Catalan draughtsman and painter of anecdotal realism. He studied at the Llotja School and later spent a long period in Madrid to further his studies, where he came into contact with the work of Velázquez at the Prado Museum. After Madrid, he went to live in Paris, where he died in 1922. He often exhibited in Paris, and in Barcelona he did so at the Universal Exhibition of 1888, in the Sala Parés and the exhibition of the Circulo Acuarela - lista of 1885. He was a member of the Sant Jordi Royal Catalan Academy of Fine Arts. In Barcelona, Raimon Casellas was one of its main advocates.