Santiago Rusiñol

SANTIAGO RUSIÑOL I PRATS (Barcelona, 1861 - Aranjuez, Madrid, 1931).
"Gardens of Ulldemolins.
Oil on canvas.
Signed in the lower right corner.
It presents small faults in the frame.
Measurements: 66 x 81 cm; 82 x 97 cm (frame).

The painting "Jardins d'Ulldemolins" by Santiago Rusiñol is an exquisite sample of his fascination for the gardens and the Mediterranean landscapes, recurrent and very dear elements in his modernist work. The painting introduces us to a path flanked by slender cypress trees and sturdy stone walls, suggesting a path within a garden or perhaps a monastery in Ulldemolins, a picturesque town in the Catalan region of Priorat. The trees alternate with half-built parapets of exposed brickwork that give an additional chromatic rhythm. The composition is carefully structured by means of a deep perspective, worked in different layers. This resource guides the viewer's gaze from the foreground, dominated by the dry trunks alternating with the greenery of the cypresses, and progresses towards the background, creating a sense of immersion and spaciousness in the landscape. The work invites a visual journey, highlighting the serene beauty and natural harmony of the Mediterranean environment.

A painter, writer and playwright in the Catalan language, Rusiñol was one of the main ideologists of the Catalan modernist movement. He trained as a disciple of Tomás Moragas and frequented the Center of Watercolorists, of which he was one of the founders. He made his debut in 1884 at the Sala Parés in Barcelona, together with his friends Ramón Casas and Enric Clarasó. During those years he made a carriage trip through Catalonia with Casas, taking notes of types and landscapes. The year 1888 marks a turning point in his career, since he begins with three new activities: he publishes some writings in "La Vanguardia", participates in the Paris Salon and holds his first individual exhibition at the Sala Parés. The following year, 1889, Rusiñol settles in Paris, in the Montmartre district, with Utrillo, Clarasó and Canudas. He attended the academy of the painter Henri Gervex, and completed his training with Puvis de Chavannes and Carrière. The ruralism he had adopted in Barcelona disappeared, and his style evolved towards naturalism. He also approaches the thematic, but not technical, approaches of the impressionists, as well as their desire to capture a fleeting snapshot. In 1890 he established a relationship with Sitges, where he painted some of his first patios and gardens, a theme that would define his later style. That same year he held his first exhibition at the Sala Parés, together with Casas and Clarasó. In 1890 he returns to Paris with Casas and Utrillo. At this time he will focus on representing the entertainment spaces of the area, such as the Moulin de la Galette, which will be the protagonist of many of his paintings. However, in 1893 he left his studio in Montmartre and moved to the Ile Saint Louis, where he focused on the psychological study of the figure, especially female, reflecting the sadness, melancholy and loneliness typical of the fin-de-siècle period. The following year he travels to Italy with Zuloaga, visiting Pisa, Florence and other places, which allows him to know closely the primitives. On his return he exhibits the paintings made during this trip in what will be his first personal exhibition in the Sala Parés. That same year he inaugurates the Cau Ferrat in Sitges, the seed of the current museum. In 1895 he made his first trip to Granada, and began the series "Gardens of Spain". In 1897 he made some of his best paintings of gardens, an interest that also appears in his literary work "The Abandoned Garden", where he cultivates a symbolist decadence. The elegant garden becomes the protagonist, symbol of poetry; the abandoned garden hides a past of lost splendor. Rusiñol then travels, looking for gardens that seduce him, and paints them interiorizing them, showing his personal conception of beauty, of life and death, of art and reality, of solitude and the passing of time. Around this time, he exhibited in Paris at the Salon des Indépendants, at the Exposition Nationale and at the gallery of Samuel Bing, the main promoter of Art Nouveau in France. This last exhibition, of individual character and celebrated in 1899, supposed the international recognition of Rusiñol, whose success was based on a new vision of Spain, totally removed from clichés and loaded with veracity. From then on his activity multiplied as a painter, novelist and comedian, he premiered outstanding works in Madrid and Barcelona and held annual painting exhibitions in the Sala Parés, always with Casas and Clarasó. In 1908 he received the medal of the National Exhibition of Fine Arts. He is represented in the Prado Museum, the National Art Museum of Catalonia, the Camón Aznar Museum of Zaragoza and the Thyssen-Bornemisza, among others.