RAMON CASAS CARBÓ (Barcelona, 1866 - 1932). "Couple... Lot 1

RAMON CASAS CARBÓ (Barcelona, 1866 - 1932). "Couple dancing". Charcoal drawing on paper. Signed at lower left. Paper with discolouration and missing at the top right. Size: 16 x 10,5 cm; 35,5 x 30 cm (frame). An outstanding painter and draughtsman, 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 took part 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 travelling 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 to 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 of this period 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 taking part in the Chicago World's Fair of 1893. Casas settled permanently in Barcelona, immersed in the modernist atmosphere, although he continued to travel to Paris for the annual salons. He financed the café Els Quatre Gats, which was to become a point of reference for the Modernists, and which opened in 1897. Two years later he organised his first solo 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 Modernisme. In the following years his successes followed one after another: 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 at the Circulo del Liceo, he held several international exhibitions and, in 1904, won first prize at the General Exhibition in Madrid. He was represented in the Prado Museum, the Museo Nacional de Arte de Cataluña, the Museo Nacional Reina Sofía, the Thyssen-Bornemisza, the Museo de Montserrat, the Cau Ferrat in Sitges, the Camón Aznar Museum in Zaragoza and the Museums of Contemporary Art in Barcelona and Seville, among many others.