Ramon Casas i Carbo

Barcelona has been popping up everywhere of late. That’s right, the entire city. The marvellous book I’m reading right now is set there. The last three little red Netflix envelopes that appeared in my mailbox were also all situated in the city, and all featured lingering shots of sun-kissed Gaudi architecture. An old friend from there just got back in touch, a more recent friend is currently there having the time of her life (probably having to do with some character named Jorge who keeps popping up in emails.) For the moment, I can only dream of being there, but I’d thought I’d take this opportunity to celebrate one of my favourite artists, Ramon Casas i Carbo’.

(Can’t figure out how to do accents on this keyboard. Purists, I dearly apologise. I am lazy and slatternly, and I laugh in the face of Romance languages, apparently. No other excuse.)

If you mosey on over to the Wikipedia article I’ve linked to, you’ll get a fuller story, but the short version is that Casas was a Catalan artist, who lived from 1866 to 1932, who played a major part in the Catalan modernisme movement. He lived between Barcelona and Paris, and painted all aspects of their societies. I find his portraits most appealing, but he also made some beautiful depictions of things such as bullfights, and also did some great commercial work.

Just a note: I’m not sure of all the names of his paintings, and in some cases there is so much conflict between the Catalan, Castillian, and French names that I am just leaving some blank. Don’t fret about this too much.

[above: Autoretrat Vestit de Flamenc, a self-portrait dressed as a Flamenco dancer.]

Interior a l’aire lliure

La Sargentain– this is a portrait of Julia Peraire, his favourite model and eventual wife. She was 22 years his junior.

Madeleine

Ramon Casas i Pere Romeu en Tandem

Entre Dues Llums

Sensualitat

This painting above was probably destined to become an advert of some variety.

Portrait of Pablo Picasso

Look at the Harlequins!

Leaning Harlequin. 1901.

As it turns out, ol’ Pablo P. was rather fond of characters from the Commedia dell’ Arte, with special emphasis on Harlequin. He painted him many times throughout his career, seeming to find something of interest in the varieties of his costume and demeanour.  Also, when painting a stock character of this sort, it’s interesting to question whether these pictures are of the imagined character of Harlequin himself in action, or of people in costume, as they would be at Carnival. Here below, I’ve collected the examples of Picasso’s Harlequin paintings I’ve been able to assemble. I’ve left them in chronological order, because it’s interesting to see his take evolve over the years. It’s curious to think why he would return to this character so often.  It’s tempting to say that the great number of paintings he made of it in his early years were in part because the costume itself, with its coloured diamonds, formed a way to begin to play with colour blocks and geometry within the realm of realism, that would become more fully realised with his later work. Ok. No more thinking about this. Paintings!

In ‘Lapin Agile’ or Harlequin with a Glass. 1905.

Harlequin Sitting on a Red Couch. 1905.

Note the lack of colour on this one’s costume. Why did he still call him Harlequin?

Acrobat and Young Harlequin. 1905.

This one is one of my favourites and was the impetus for this collection.

Harlequin. 1915.

Harlequin with a Guitar. 1918.

The Seated Harlequin. 1923.

Paulo, Picasso’s Son, as Harlequin. 1924.

Paulo, Picasso’s Son, as Pierrot. 1925.

I’m perfectly aware that this isn’t Harlequin, but I just couldn’t resist putting up this picture to pair with the prior one.

Images thanks to Olga’s Gallery.