Modernism in its proper setting
Modernist painting in one of its natural habitats: the architecture of the Eixample area of Barcelona. The Francisco Godia Foundation's collection includes the various streams that converged in this movement: 19th-century Realism, which sought to create an illusion of reality, and new trends, which capture the beauty of simple things and explore light effects, elegant high-society life and those marginalised from society.
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Santiago Rusiñol
(Barcelona, 1861 – Aranjuez, 1931)
Montjuïc Quarry
1886-1887
Oil on canvas
97,5x130 cm
His stay in Paris enabled Rusiñol to come into contact with the new trends in modern art. Any spot lacking conventional beauty could become a pictorial theme if the artist knew how to draw the artistry out of it. In the case of Montjuic Quarry, Rusiñol transformed the prosaic view into an explosion of light and colour.
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Ramon Casas Carbó
(Barcelona, 1866-1932)
At the racecourse
c. 1899-1901
Oil on canvas
152x200 cm
Ramon Casas introduced the modernity of Paris into Catalan painting with a style halfway between Naturalism and Expressionism. Over time he became the painter of the elegant life. Women play the main role, an active role, in his paintings. The long, delicate brushstrokes that frame the figures do not detract from the faded finish that characterises his style.
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Isidre Nonell
(Barcelona, 1872-1911)
The widow
1904-1905
Oil on canvas
79x64 cm
Nonell is the artist of gypsies, beggars and the marginalised, who paints with dark melancholy. At the start of his career he mainly did life drawing. He later threw himself into painting. He developed a personal style of expressionism with forceful, curved and nervously repeated brushstrokes.
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