19^th-20^th century Spanish

Ramón Casas is a highly important figure within the Catalan Modernisme movement. Born into a bourgeoisie family, his precocious talent was soon recognised and, at the early age of fifteen, he enrolled at the studio of the Catalan artist Joan Vicens (1820-1886). He would then go on to complete his training in Paris, at the celebrated studio of Carolus Duran (Charles Émile Auguste Durand, 1837-1917), were he studied painting from the Spanish Golden Age. In 1885 he travelled to Madrid to copy the old masters at the Prado.

Casas spent several long sojourns in Paris between 1889 and 1892. There he consolidated his style and probably saw first-hand the work of artists like Édouard Manet (1832-1883), Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901) and James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903), which would exert a great influence on his painting. Casas shared a studio at Moulin de la Galette with Santiago Rusiñol (1861-1931), who he had met through the sculptor Enric Clarasó (1857-1941). The three artists exhibited their work in 1890 at Sala Parés, the first of many group shows that they would have throughout their careers.

In 1897, after settling in Barcelona, he was instrumental, together with Rusiñol, Miquel Utrillo (1862-1934) and Père Romeu, in opening the Els Quatre Gats café —inspired by Chat Noir in Paris— which would become a meeting place for the Catalan intelligentsia of the time. The new café hosted all kinds of shows and artists, ranging from literary gatherings and concerts to puppet shows, Chinese shadows and exhibitions. They also founded a journal of the same name, which was followed by others, like Pel & Ploma (1899-1903) or Forma (1903-1908), run and illustrated by Ramón Casas and directed and edited by Miquel Utrillo.

Casas’ painting engages with a wide range of subject matters: urban landscapes, (mostly female) portraits, nudes, as well as interior and social scenes chronicling the life of the time. He excelled in all of them thanks to his ability to capture the surrounding atmosphere.

Casas lent great importance to drawing. His masterful charcoal portraits compile a detailed gallery of the most outstanding members of the Catalan bourgeoisie, from artists and men of letters, like his friend Santiago Rusiñol or the author Pío Baroja, to journalists and politicians such as Modesto Sánchez Ortiz, editor of La Vanguardia. He was also an exceptional poster artist and his use of chromolithography evinced his versatility and modernism. Women featured heavily in his posters, as one can see in the images for brands like Codorníu or Anís del Mono. In them, Casas ushered in a new type of female beauty that dovetails with the ideal created by the US graphic artist Charles Dana Gibson (1867-1944).

In Spain, his works can be found in the Prado and Reina Sofía museums in Madrid, as well as at the Museu Nacional d´Art de Catalunya and Museu del Modernisme in Barcelona, the Museum of Montserrat and important collections including Carmen Thyssen or Cercle del Liceu. His works are also included in American collections, particularly in Chicago and Miami.