Valencia
In his childhood he studied music at the School of Craftsmen of Valencia, following the wishes of his father who was band director and in charge of scores at the Teatro Principal, continuing his studies later at the San Pablo Institute and the San Pablo Academy of Fine Arts. Carlos in Valencia. After winning a silver medal at the 1879 Valencia Exhibition and other awards, he moved to Madrid in 1880 with his friend Carlos Mateu. There he entered the San Fernando Academy in Madrid, also being a disciple of Emilio Sala. At the age of twenty he continued his training by traveling through Europe. In 1880 he settled in Rome, traveling through the rest of Italy, France and Portugal. From Italy he began to send works, most of them genre scenes of manners in which the influence of Mariano Fortuny can be observed, with which he participates in the National Exhibitions of Fine Arts and with which he obtains numerous awards. The first recognitions in these exhibitions, third medals, came in 1884 and 1887 for "Dante" and "The Burial of Santa Leocadia", paintings of clear Italian inspiration. In 1892 and 1895 he received second medals, and in 1899, 1901, 1904 and 1912 other awards and decorations. He was also awarded a Medal of Honor at the Valencia Exposition of 1899 and at the Paris Universal Exhibition of 1900 and at the Valencia Exhibition of 1910. His work, sometimes decorative, has a drawing close to modernist sensibility, which alternates with other examples of impressionist brushstrokes. In 1910 he began his career as a teacher at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando, replacing Emilio Sala at the head of the chair of “Color Aesthetics and Pictorial Procedures”, which he would hold until his retirement in 1931. In this chair he has as disciples to Cossío, Juan Gris and José María López Mezquita. His theoretical work was completed with the publication of the essay Cartilla del arte pictorial. In 1924 he was appointed academician of San Fernando, exercising his teaching with notable influence in conservative artistic circles. He stood out widely as a cartoonist, as attested by the calendars of the Unión Española de Explosivos of 1906, 1907 and 1908. In them he combines bourgeois portraiture and Valencian folklore with the festive nature of pyrotechnics and the fun of hunting. Married to Valentina Navarro Alconero (born in Seseña on October 2, 1880), they had a daughter named Josefa Pla Navarro, mentioned as Pepita by her father in the works in which he portrays her.
Madrid
