Born in Portbou, Girona in 1913, he spent his first years in Figueras, until 1925, when he moved with his family to Barcelona.
There he studied Law, but gave up shortly before finishing and instead enrolled at the Escola de la Llotja.
He fled the Spanish Civil War and traveled to Paris where he became a member of the surrealist circle that included André Breton, Yves Tanguy, Óscar Domínguez, Victor Brauner, Roberto Matta and Gordon Onslow Ford, amongst others.
Irène Hamoir re-tells the story of a violent argument, which took place in 1938, between Dominguez, Louis Scutenaire and Francés.
Also present were Paul Éluard, Georges Hugnet, Wolfgang Paalen, Benjamin Péret and Tanguy.