1866 -1932 · Barcelona, Paris and Catalan modernism

Social portrait, Parisian life, posters and modern speed make Ramon Casas the great visual chronicler of fin-de-siecle Catalonia.

Ramon Casas I Carbo was born in Barcelona in 1866 and died in the same city in 1932. Coming from a wealthy family, he abandoned his studies early and left for Paris in 1881, where he trained in the orbit of Carolus-Duran. The cafes, balls, workshops and isolated figures of Montmartre teach him freer painting, attentive to gray light and modern psychology. At the Moulin de la Galette teaches him a freer painting, attentive to gray light and modern psychology. At the Moulin de la Galette transposes this Parisian experience into a space of ambiguous sociability. Plein air, produced in 1890, articulates terrace, characters and cut shots with an audacity close to Degas and photography. Decadent woman shows a young woman abandoned on a sofa: pose, emptiness and interiority sum it up refined malaise of the end of the century. Back in Barcelona, Casas became with Santiago Rusiñol a central actor in Catalan modernism. In 1897, he participated with Pere Romeu, Miquel Utrillo and Rusiñol in the creation of Els Quatre Gats, a meeting place inspired by the Black Cat. Ramon Casas and Pere Romeu on a famous friendship, humor and speed tandem; the large decorative silhouette becomes an emblem of the café. Casas also excels in charcoal portraiture, social painting, illustrated revue and advertising poster. His images of Anís del Mono, shows and new consumers give Catalan graphics an immediately popular elegance. His career thus connects Paris and Barcelona, painting and reproduction, bohemia and bourgeoisie. The "Ramón Casas" selection notably compares Plein air and Ramón Casas and Pere Romeu on a tandem. His reading favors the material.

Casas paints modernity at eye level: an empty terrace, a tandem or a weary silhouette is enough to make you feel the speed, desire and boredom of an era.