19th-20th Century Spanish

Miquel Utrillo was born in Barcelona, where he would become a key figure in the cultural scene of his time.

After training as an engineer in Barcelona and Paris, where his family had gone into exile because of his father’s republican and liberal convictions, he started practicing his profession in France, Germany and Belgium. He discovered his artistic calling when he moved to Paris in 1889 to report on the World Expo for the newspaper La Vanguardia. While there, he frequented the bohemian life of Montmartre. This period was to mark the beginning of his career as an artist and as a critic. Around this time Santiago Rusiñol (1861-1931), who Utrillo had met some years before through the Associació d´Excursions Catalana, had a particularly important influence on him, and it was Rusiñol who introduced him to the Modernista artists working in Paris at the time.

Back in Barcelona, Utrillo was instrumental, along with Rusiñol, Ramon Casas (1866-1932) and Pere Romeu in opening the Els Quatre Gats café, inspired by Chat Noir, the legendary cabaret in Paris. Els Quatre Gats quickly became 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. In fact, Forma was the first publication to feature a review of the work of a promising young artist from Malaga called Pablo Ruiz Picasso (1881-1973). And this review was signed by Miquel Utrillo.

A key moment in the life of the artist was the period of the Maricel complex in Sitges: an important personal project driven the American industrialist, collector and philanthropist Charles Deering, a close friend of Casas. Deering conceived Maricel as a residence for himself and for his wide-ranging art collections, and he entrusted Utrillo with the refurbishment and selection of new purchases.

Miquel Utrillo was in charge of the editorial team and artistic direction of Enciclopedia Espasa from its inception until 1919. He also penned monographs on El Greco, José de Ribera and Ignacio Zuloaga. In 1929 he worked as artistic advisor for the Barcelona Universal Expo.

Also worth highlighting is his museographic work, after his appointment as a member of Junta de Museus de Catalunya in 1921. Utrillo organised a large number of exhibitions, including the first retrospective show of Rusiñol, in 1932. He was also in charge of the conversion into a public museum of Cau Ferrat (Rusiñol’s home and studio that they had both shared at times).

The Sitges town council purchased the Utrillo Collection from his son, Miquel Utrillo Vidal.