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MNAC - Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya

Ramon Casas, Ramon Casas and Pere Romeu in a Motor Car, 1901

Ramon Casas and Pere Romeu in a Motor Car, Ramon Casas, 1901. Oil on canvas, 208 x 291 cm. MNAC - Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya. Barcelona.

 

Ramon Casas and Pere Romeu in a Motor Car, Ramon Casas, 1901. Oil on canvas, 208 x 291 cm. MNAC - Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya. Barcelona.

 

This singular work of Catalan Modernisme shows Ramon Casas himself and Pere Romeu, the owner of the famous tavern Els Quatre Gats, driving that eminently 20th century vehicle, a motor car, and was hung on the main wall of the tavern. This painting was hung there in 1901 to replace an earlier work showing the same characters riding a tandem, with the Barcelona skyline in the background. Both paintings have become emblems of the spirit of Catalan Modernisme.

The decorative nature of the paintings, their humourous tone and their style recall the posters for which Ramon Casas had become famous and approach the aesthetics of Art Nouveau and the work of the great French poster artist Toulouse-Lautrec.

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