Joan Llimona

(Barcelona, 1860 – 1926)

Un pati trist

ca. 1903

oil on canvas

100.2 x 137.3 cm

Inv. no. P01491

BBVA Collection Spain


Although the composition and subject matter of this painting did not raise any initial doubts about the authorship of the signature seen on it ("S. Rusiñol”), and despite the profusion of views of gardens made by that Catalan artist, a more detailed study of the composition and the techniques used did however arouse the first suspicions as to this attribution.

Thanks to Josep C. Laplana and Mercedes Palau Ribes, authors of the catalogue raisonné of the work of Rusiñol, it was possible to identify this particular canvas as a work by Joan Llimona. The oil painting was on view in the exhibition around Christmas 1903 and the beginning of 1904 at
, in Barcelona, an institution promoted by the artist himself.

As demonstrated by the photograph of this work featured in 1904 in La Ilustración Catalana (II, 33, Barcelona, 17 January 1904), the composition has suffered some alterations: the nun sitting on the bench in the background has been removed (although there are still some remaining traces) and a fountain has been added to the pond in the foreground. Furthermore, Santiago Rusiñol’s signature was added. It was decided to leave the work in its current state given the impossibility of recovering the image of the nun, as a consequence of the painting being scratched.

Llimona created this oil painting after his practice begun to be permeated by religiousness. The subject matters he addressed, generally connected to the spiritual world, made his art more intimate and more constricted in appeal.

It is not hard to explain the reason behind the manipulation of the piece: Llimona was an excellent painter whose work is included in the main museums of Catalonia (MNAC, Montserrat…) but he was nonetheless a local artist. On the contrary, Rusiñol enjoyed a considerable reputation in the whole of Spain and his works reached much higher prices. That led to the appearance of works attributed to him that he had not actually made. What is rather stranger is the use of paintings by renowned artists—as in this case—for that purpose.