Ramon Casas: 80 Drawings

Ramon Casas i Carbó (1866 –1932) was a Catalan Spanish artist. Living through a turbulent time in the history of his native Barcelona, he was known as a portraitist, sketching and painting the intellectual, economic, and political elite of Barcelona, Paris, Madrid, and beyond; he was also known for his paintings of crowd scenes ranging from the audience at a bullfight to the assembly for an execution to rioters in the Barcelona streets. Also a graphic designer, his posters and postcards helped to define the Catalan art movement known as modernism.

He was born in Barcelona in 1866, in a family deeply seated in the Catalan bourgeoisie. Still very young, Ramon abandoned his studies to enter as an apprentice in the Joan Vicens workshop, where he received a solid pictorial training. In 1881, he travelled to Paris to pursue his training at the Durand Academy. On his return, he became active in the social and cultural scene in city Condal, where he became well-known as an excellent portrait artist of the most relevant figures of the time, including Unamuno, Azorín or Joaquín Sorolla. Of no less importance were his works as a commercial billboard artist for Codorniu or Anís del Mono, among others.

His style evolved from post-impressionism, influenced by painters such as Manet or Degas, to a style marked by a realist character.