Santiago Rusiñol: Barcelona 1861 - 1931 Aranjuez

AWARDS
1888 - Exposición Universal de Barcelona (Universal Exhibition of Barcelona). Second class medal
1889 - Universal Exhibition of Paris. Honourable mention
1890 - Exposición Nacional de Bellas Artes de Madrid (National Exhibition of Fine Arts of Madrid). Second class medal
1891 - International exhibition of Berlin. Honourable mention
1892 - Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts de París. Title of Associé
1893 - International exhibition of Chicago. Unique medal
1894 - Exposición de Bellas Artes de Bilbao (Exhibition of Fine Arts of Bilbao). Second class medal
1895 - Exposición Nacional de Bellas Artes de Madrid (National Exhibition of Fine Arts of Madrid). Second class medal
1896 - III Exposición de Bellas Artes de Barcelona (Third Exhibition of Fine Arts of Barcelona). Bronze medal
1901 - Exposición Nacional de Bellas Artes de Madrid (National Exhibition of Fine Arts of Madrid). Consideration of First class medal (effective in 1915)
1904 - Exposición Nacional de Bellas Artes de Madrid (National Exhibition of Fine Arts of Madrid). Proposed by the jury to be awarded Comendador de la Orden de Alfonso XII
1907 - V Exposición de Bellas Artes de Barcelona (Fifth Exhibition of Fine Arts of Barcelona). Gold medal
1907 - Title of Comendador de la Gran Cruz de Isabel la Católica
1908 - Exposición Nacional de Bellas Artes de Madrid (National Exhibition of Fine Arts of Madrid). First class medal and candidate for the Medal of Honour
1908 - Exposición Hispano-Francesa de Zaragoza (Hispano-French Exhibition of Zaragoza). Gold medal
1908 - Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts de Paris. Title of Sociétaire
1910 - Exposición Internacional de Buenos Aires (International Exhibition of Buenos Aires). Prize
1912 - Exposición Nacional de Bellas Artes de Madrid (National Exhibition of Fine Arts of Madrid). First class medal
1915 - Exposición Nacional de Bellas Artes de Madrid (National Exhibition of Fine Arts of Madrid). Nominated for the Medal of Honour
1917 - Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur, France
1926 - Exposición Nacional de Bellas Artes de Madrid (National Exhibition of Fine Arts of Madrid). Nominated for the Medal of Honour
1929 - Exposición Internacional de Barcelona (International Exhibition of Barcelona). First medal
1930 - Exposición Nacional de Bellas Artes de Madrid (National Exhibition of Fine Arts of Madrid). Nominated for the Medal of Honour

COLLECTIONS
Museo Nacional de Arte de Cataluña, Barcelona
Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid
Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes de Buenos Aires
Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes de Cuba, La Habana
Spanish Heritage, New York
Museo de Montserrat
Museo del Cau Ferrat, Sitges
Círculo de Bellas Artes, Valencia
Museo de Arte de Gerona, Girona
Es Baluard Museo de Arte Moderno y Contemporáneo, Palma de Mallorca
Generalitat de Catalunya, Barcelona
Masaveu Collection
Banco Santander Collection
BBVA Collection
Círculo del Liceo, Barcelona
Biblioteca Museo Víctor Balaguer, Vilanova i la Geltrú
Casa Museu Pau Casal, El Vendrell

Santiago Rusiñol was one of the most relevant painters of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in Spain, and one of the main representatives of pictorial Modernism. The son of a bourgeois family in the textile industry, Rusiñol abandoned the family business at an early age to study painting and drawing in the Barcelona workshop of Tomás Moragas (1837-1906). In his youthful period, he was particularly attracted to landscapes, and principally by the works of Joaquim Vayreda (1843–1894), an artist who introduced Impressionist principles to the art market in Barcelona. 

Rusiñol made travel his modus vivendi, and what is more, it led him to constantly discover new pictorial motifs, colours, and sensations, which he then expressed so well in his painting. His desire for independence culminated in 1889 when he started to make trips to Paris with other artists, including, most notably, his intimate and inseparable friend Ramon Casas (1866-1932). In Paris he discovered modernity and Impressionism. He made bohemia his emblem as well as his principal pictorial motive. He was enthused with the work of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Paul Signac, James Whistler and Théophile Steinlen, among many others. He shared a close relationship with key artists of the late nineteenth century French capital, such as the musician Erik Satie (1866–1925). From that period, of particular note are the scenes of bohemianism that he himself experienced at the Moulin de la Galette and Montmartre. In them, the melancholy, misery, and greyness of the Ville Lumiére are always present. It is precisely this period that consecrated him as a painter in Paris as well as in Barcelona and Madrid, obtaining medals and mentions in official painting competitions. In Barcelona, he frequented the Sala Parés and the modernist tavern Els 4 Gats, which became primary spaces for the dissemination of his literary and artistic work.

At the end of 1891, he discovered Sitges with Eliseu Meifrén (1859–1940) and turned that modest old fishing village into one of the most important hubs of Modernism in Spain. He built the famous “Cau Ferrat”, a place of artistic meetings and talks through which the main figures of the culture of his time often passed. In this period, his painting became brighter and warmer, managing to encode new compositional typologies such as his well-known Sitges courtyards.

In 1895, during a trip to Granada, he discovered what was to be his main pictorial theme until his death in 1931: abandoned gardens. He started with the gardens of the Alhambra and the Generalife and, after constant trips throughout Spain, he got to know different places where decadent gardens were always the protagonists. Melancholy, lonely and nomadic, Rusiñol exploited his extraordinary sensitivity in this theme and it led him to reap new triumphs in both national and international competitions. His paintings were consumed by the aristocracy and bourgeoisie, and were among the most appreciated Spanish works of his day. In addition to being a painter, Rusiñol was a reference point as a writer, philosopher, and an aesthete, influencing both other writers and all kinds of French and Spanish artists.