This oil on canvas from the artist’s earliest period was produced when Pruna was just seventeen. A precocious artist, his personal talent and his acquaintanceship with artists of the stature of Sebastià Junyer (1878-1966) and Ricard Canals (1876-1931), customers of his father’s barbershop, propelled his budding career. Good proof can be seen in the fact that he had his first exhibition, held at Galería Areñas in Barcelona, when he was only thirteen years old.

Dos Nens (Two Children), dated by the artist in 1921, the year he travelled to Paris, was sold at Sala Nonell, a prestigious gallery in Barcelona. It is an early work, before receiving the influence of Picasso who, at that time, was immersed in his classicist period. Later, Pruna’s works created in Paris were sometimes mistaken for works by Picasso.

In this painting, one can notice how the line carefully silhouetting the idealised figures contrasts sharply with the loose, diluted brushwork. Both the pre-eminence of the line and the smooth modelling and idealisation of the facial features vouch for Pruna’s liking for the Italian Renaissance. Works like this one evince the artist’s admiration for artists like Raffaello Sanzio (1483-1520), Piero de la Francesca (ca. 1415-1492) and Sandro Botticelli (ca. 1445-1510) —whose paintings he would be able to see for himself in Italy four years later— which would earn him the moniker of “the last of the Italian painters.” This work conveys the calm gaze of a young artist who looks to the future from an understanding of the past.