After many years living in the French capital, Laureano Barrau abandoned Paris in 1899 to return to his homeland, and settled in the coastal town of Caldes d’Estrac, near Barcelona. This change of residence altered his style of painting, likely owing to the difference in climate between the two places; the vitality and dynamism of a city such as Paris, which was characterized by a grey climate and lead-coloured skies, contrasted significantly with the tranquillity of a small seaside village that had a serene and luminous ambience.

Barrau already tended to depict Mediterranean landscapes before settling in Ibiza, where he spent the last forty years of his life. From that point on, he dedicated his work almost exclusively to painting seascapes, to the extent that he earned the nickname of the ‘Catalan Sorolla’. Among the virgin villages of the Costa Brava, Tossa de Mar was one of his favourites. It was there that Joan Brull, closest of the Modernist painters in terms of his work and moderate mentality to Barrau, invited him to spend the summer of 1903 with his wife and muse, Berta Vallier.

Tossa de Mar, later called the ‘Blue Paradise’ by Marc Chagall, is indeed the location that we identify in the present work. With its imposing towers, the medieval part of the town - the Vila Vella (Old Town) - is recognisable, almost completely surrounded by walls dating from the twelfth century. At the top of the hill, we see the profile of the ruins of the old gothic parish church. In the foreground of the composition, a couple, who we see from behind, are contemplating the magnificent landscape formed by sailboats navigating on the water and the old town bathed in the evening light.

This painting undoubtedly reflects the influence of Sorolla’s work, evident in the way that the light is captured and the vivid chromatism of the figures. At the same time, the landscape is represented in almost photographic detail. However, this comparison with the Valencian master should not erroneously be interpreted as an attempt to emulate him, as one of his contemporaries already recognized. The critic Alberto de Castillo stated: “He is considered with reason the most characterised Catalan Sorollist. But this anticipation of luminary pictorialism, even while true, is excessively simplistic, Barrau has always had a desire for truth from the very beginning”.