Noia d’esquena llegint (Girl Reading with her Back Turned), Antoni Vila Arrufat, 1930. Oil on canvas, 60 × 50 cm. Sabadell Art Museum.
By 1930, Antoni Vila Arrufat (Sabadell, 1894 - Barcelona, 1989) had reached an early stage of maturity in his art. He had received solid training from his father the painter, Joan Vila Cinca, at the Escola de Llotja in Barcelona, and he had made several profitable sojourns to Paris and Italy. He was also a talented artist who mastered a variety of techniques.
Noia d’esquena llegint (Girl Reading with her Back Turned) is a mature work of art which reveals a subtle modernity – not too distant from a realistic facture – which is visible in the solidity of the volumes and the application of colour, as well as in the theme, the girl dressed for sport surrounded by a disorderly pile of books on the table.
