Ramon Casas

RAMÓN CASAS CARBÓ (Barcelona, 1866 - 1932).
"Paris-Madrid, Chauffeur", 1902.
Charcoal, pastel and chalk on lithographic print Affiche imaginaire.
Signed in plate in the lower left corner.
Includes certificate of authenticity issued by Adrià Codina, descendant of the heirs of Ramon Casas Carbó.
Bibliography: Pèl & Ploma. May 1903. Nº 93. Year IV.
Measurements: 48 x 33 cm; 90 x 75 cm (frame).

The work now on auction is an extraordinarily singular piece within the artistic imagination of Ramón Casas: in 1902 he made a series of five charcoal drawings in which he represented different models driving automobiles, an extraordinarily modern and unusual theme for the time, especially because of the prominence given to women in relation to the world of motoring. A year later, Lluís Bartrina edited, based on these drawings, a collection of five black and white postcards printed by the Thomas publishing house in Barcelona. Several copies of these postcards are known to have been hand-colored, all different from each other and without following a specific chromatic pattern. For specialists in Casas's work, it is not difficult to recognize in some of these spontaneous colorings the direct intervention of the modernist artist's hand.

Following Bartrina's indications, Casas could not apply color to the original drawings intended for the postcards, a limitation that seems to have left the painter with a certain feeling of unfinished work. Years later, taking advantage of his association as director of the magazine Pèl & Ploma, he decided to reinterpret one of those compositions in an imaginary poster of large dimensions (70 × 55 cm), reproducing one of the drawings initially created for the postcard series. The charcoal drawing preparatory to this poster is currently preserved in the Círculo del Liceo in Barcelona and belonged previously to the Viscount of Güell.

With this work, Casas created a unique advertising poster devoid of any commercial purpose, where the language of modern posters becomes a purely artistic exercise. The painter made a very small print run, probably only four or five copies, of which only two are known today. Each one presents variations and different chromatic treatments, as if they were independent works. The copy in bidding stands out for being completely colored and retouched, while the other known copy is preserved in the Documentation Center of the Orfeó Català.

A leading figure of modernism and one of the most internationally renowned Spanish artists of his time, Ramón Casas developed a decisive career between Barcelona and Paris, with an early presence at the Salon des Champs Elysées. His work is now part of the main public collections -Museo del Prado, MNAC, Museo Reina Sofía, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, among others-, confirming his position as an essential reference of modern portraiture and Spanish art collecting between centuries.