Ramon Casas

RAMÓN CASAS CARBÓ (Barcelona, 1866 - 1932).
"Cloister of Sant Benet de Bages".
Oil on canvas.
Signed in the lower right corner.
Measurements: 100 x 81 cm; 122 x 103 cm (frame).

Already in 1881 Ramon Casas, who was then only fifteen years old, published a sketch of this cloister in the magazine "L'Avenç", founded that same year by Jaume Massó. Several years later, in 1909, the painter's family acquired the monastery (which would pass into Casas' hands after his mother's death), and commissioned the modernist architect Josep Puig i Cadafalch to restore it. In this magnificent canvas Casas seems to reveal the hidden soul of the Benedictine monastery, the atmosphere of contemplation, silence and meditation that has survived the passing of the centuries to create a bridge between the ancient monks and the master of Catalan modernism. With just a few elements, Casas captures the fleeting appearance of the place at a given moment, in the manner of the Impressionists, but he also goes further by speaking through the bare walls and floors, through the vaults that reflect the light and vibrate with chromatic nuances with the shadow, of a past of recollection and prayer, which echoes the melancholy end of the nineteenth century.

An outstanding painter and draftsman, Casas began painting as a disciple of Joan Vicens. In 1881 he made his first trip to Paris, where he completed his training at the Carolus Duran and Gervex academies. The following year he participated for the first time in an exhibition at the Sala Parés in Barcelona, and in 1883 he presented a self-portrait at the Salon des Champs Elysées in Paris, which earned him an invitation to become a member of the Salon de la Societé d'Artistes Françaises. He spent the following years traveling and painting between Paris, Barcelona, Madrid and Granada. In 1886, suffering from tuberculosis, he settled in Barcelona to recover. There he came into contact with Santiago Rusiñol, Eugène Carrière and Ignacio Zuloaga. After a trip through Catalonia with Rusiñol in 1889, Casas returned to Paris with his friend. The following year he took part in a group exhibition at the Sala Parés, together with Rusiñol and Clarasó, and in fact the three of them continued to hold joint exhibitions there until Rusiñol's death in 1931. His works at this time are halfway between academicism and French impressionism, in a sort of germ of what would later become Catalan modernism. His fame continued to spread throughout Europe, and he held successful exhibitions in Madrid and Berlin, as well as participating in the Chicago World's Fair of 1893. Casas settled permanently in Barcelona, immersed in the modernist environment, although he continued to travel to Paris for the annual salons. He financed the premises that would become a point of reference for the modernists, the café Els Quatre Gats, inaugurated in 1897. Two years later he organized his first individual exhibition at the Sala Parés. While his fame as a painter grew, Casas began to work as a graphic designer, adopting the Art Nouveau style that came to define Catalan Modernism. In the following years his successes followed: he presented two works at the Universal Exhibition in Paris in 1900, won a prize in Munich in 1901, several of his works were included in the permanent exhibition of the Círculo del Liceo, had several international exhibitions and, in 1904, won first prize at the General Exhibition in Madrid. He is represented in the Prado Museum, the National Museum of Art of Catalonia, the Reina Sofia National Museum, the Thyssen-Bornemisza, the Museum of Montserrat, the Cau Ferrat in Sitges, the Camón Aznar Museum in Zaragoza and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Barcelona.