Born in the number 13 of Barcelona's Trafalgar street, Lluïsa Vidal was the second of 12 siblings (ten girls and two boys): one of her sisters became associated with Pablo Casals, and another one became the wife of the philologist and writer Manuel de Montoliu.

While in Paris, she attended Eugène Carrière's lessons, and she was especially influenced by artists such as Santiago Rusiñol (composition resources) and Ramon Casas (portraits).

When she was 16 she visited Madrid with her father and went for the first time to Museo del Prado, where she discovered Spanish masters such as Francisco de Goya or Diego Velázquez and realised the economic value of a good portraitist.

[2] She also started giving private painting lessons in 1908 so as to earn more money to sustain her family, and in 1911 she opened her own academy, placed in Isidre Nonell's ancient studio.

In 1914 she held a renowned exhibition at Sala Parés, and Barcelona's press qualified her as a "distinguished woman" and "celebrated artist",[2] which Carmen Karr (aka Joana Romeu in Feminal) found deeply annoying.

With Joaquim Mir, Oriol Junyent, Joan González, Xavier Gosé, R. Canals and Ramon Pichot, Vidal has been considered as a member of the second Catalan modernism generation.

Even some of her works had been attributed to Ramon Casas,[1] as both artists show the influence of Diego Velázquez, John Singer Sargent, James McNeill Whistler or Édouard Manet.