Born in Barcelona, Daura studied at La Llotja Art Academy in Barcelona, where Picasso’s father was one of his teachers. Around 1914, he left Spain for Paris and worked in Émile Bernard’s studio. After three years of military service, he returned to Paris in 1920, settling in Montmartre and painting and designing fabrics for couturiers. Daura married American painter Louise Blair in 1928. He became friends with Joaquín Torres-García and Michel Seuphor and, with them, founded the artists’ group Cercle et Carré in 1929. With his wife and young daughter Martha, Daura made his first trip to the United States in 1934–35. The family returned to Europe for several years before settling in Louise’s native Virginia in 1939. Daura served as chair of art at Lynchburg College (1945–46) and taught at Randolph-Macon Women’s College from 1946 to 1953. He painted full time from then on at his studio in Rockbridge Baths, Virginia. Daura’s works can be found in numerous museums throughout the United States and Europe, including the San Diego Museum of Art, San Antonio Museum of Art, Indianapolis Museum of Art, Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya and Musée National d’Art Moderne–Centre Georges Pompidou. In addition, Daura’s former house and studio in the picturesque French village of Saint-Cirq Lapopie is now a lively artists’ residence, the Maisons Daura.