Emilio Vilà (1887–1967) was a Spanish artist and poster illustrator born in a small village in

Catalonia Catalonia is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationalities and regions of Spain, nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia of 2006, Statute of Autonomy. Most of its territory (except the Val d'Aran) is situate ...

called Llagostera. He studied in Llagostera for some years, and later in

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

. Because of the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...

, he had to move to France (artists were not well seen), where he worked as a painter and poster illustrator. He also painted portraits. In Paris, he knew painters such as

Toulouse-Lautrec ''Comte'' Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec-Monfa (24 November 1864 – 9 September 1901), known as Toulouse-Lautrec (), was a French painter, printmaker, draughtsman, caricaturist, and illustrator whose immersion in the colourful an ...

and

Picasso Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, Ceramic art, ceramicist, and Scenic ...

. When he was about 60, he returned to his hometown and bought a factory, which he converted to an art gallery. It is now the Emilio Vilà Museum. He died at age 80 in Llagostera. Although he did dark paintings for a time of his life, his style was mainly shiny and colored.

References

French printmakers French poster artists 1887 births 1967 deaths {{Catalonia-artist-stub