FRANCISCO LOZANO SANCHIS (Valencia, 1912 - 2000). "Mediterráneo, Altea", 1988. Oil on canvas. Signed and dated in the lower right-hand corner and on the back. Measurements: 50.5 x 61.5 cm; 68 x 79 cm (frame). Painter, teacher and member of the Royal Academies of Fine Arts of San Fernando and San Carlos, Francisco Lozano was interested in painting from his youth, and at the age of sixteen he began his training at the Academy of San Carlos in Valencia. He later continued his studies at the Alhambra Painters Residence, and after the Civil War he began to make a name for himself. His career would take off in the 1940s, when he began to exhibit regularly in Madrid and other cities. In the capital he was welcomed by Eugenio d Ors, whose hand in hand he exhibited at the Estilo gallery, and who put him in contact with the artistic and intellectual circles of Madrid at the time. A primarily Mediterranean painter, his work focused from the outset on landscape, although he evolved from the initial influence of Sorolla towards a more personal language, although equally sensitive to light and colour. His is a synthetic, ordered and austere landscape, completely modern. Between 1951 and 1952 he travelled to Paris on a grant from the French government, and on his return his recognition was completed with the first prize at the National Exhibition of Fine Arts. That same year he was also a great success at the Venice Biennale. From then on he combined his artistic practice with teaching at the San Carlos Academy, where he held a teaching post from 1955 to 1977. At the same time, he held important exhibitions in Spain, South America, the United States, Germany and the United Kingdom, among other countries, mainly in Mediterranean Europe. Lozano was an honorary member of the Círculo de Bellas Artes (1952), a member of the Valencian Council of Culture (1986) and doctor honoris causa of the Polytechnic University of Valencia (1994), and in 1993 a major retrospective exhibition was devoted to him at the IVAM. His work is currently held in museums such as the Reina Sofía in Madrid, the Fundación Mendoza in Caracas, the Camón Aznar in Zaragoza, the IVAM in Valencia and the Fine Arts Museum in Montevideo, among others.