La dona més pintada is a kaleidoscopic novel, fluidly and organically combining several registers of journalism, history, and intrigue as Màrius Serra probes the enigma of Palau Ferré, who was known as the painter that Picasso singled out as his successor, and also because he burned his paintings.

Màrius Serra takes readers into the story of Maties Palau i Fabre by means of different time leaps, thus presenting them with the task of piecing together the bits of a portrait which, like the best works of art, is open to several interpretations.

The shock of the self-destruction of Banksy’s artwork which shredded itself in Sotheby’s Auction House is still very much alive in our memories, but many of us had by then forgotten about the case of the painter Palau Ferré, who decided to burn his paintings in the 1970s. His appearances on television and other media outlets of the day are now barely remembered although, at the time, the story was greeted with astonishment.

Màrius Serra became interested in this artist who, after a ruling by the Supreme Court, decided to throw everything he had painted into the fire. His portraits of a woman with big, fascinating eyes went up in smoke through the chimney of his home. What lay behind this self-destructive impulse? With the help of documentation, witnesses, and a splendid imagination Màrius Serra offers his readers the novel La dona més pintada which, though it starts out from the life of a painter, deals with universal themes like creation, but also the thorny relationship between artists and the market.