Both of them grew up in the same Barcelona neighborhood during the last third of the 19th century, studied fine arts at La Llotja, were part of the same artistic group –la Colla del Safrà– and, later, excelled in the portraiture, pictorial or literary, of a parallel, vibrant, and marginalized reality, that of the gypsies. "How is it possible that such close friends were never mentioned together in the press of the time?", asks Julià Guillamon (Barcelona, 1962) in relation to two of the figures who have obsessed him for decades, the painter Isidre Nonell (Barcelona, 1872-1911) and the writer Juli Vallmitjana (Barcelona, 1873-1937). This question has led him to dedicate a lavish 700-page essay to the two creators, written in collaboration with Joan Mar Sauqué, Nonell, Vallmitjana i els gitanos (Edicions de 1984, 2026), and to showcase the relationship between them, until now little studied, in an exhibition at the Fundació Palau de Caldes d'Estrac, which can be visited until September 27.