Ramon Casas (1866–1932), portrait of a time
- Autores: Carmen Chica
- Localización: Contributions to Science, ISSN-e 1575-6343, Vol. 10, Nº. 2, 2014, págs. 229-234
- Idioma: inglés
- Enlaces
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Resumen
In 1904, Ramon Casas, who was thirty eight at the time, hung off a scaffolding to direct the pleasant work of decorating the roof and walls of a solemn dining room in the Fonda España, a refurbished hotel near the Rambles in Barcelona. But, in fact, he was to have an arduous task: he was trying to “steal” from the sea a handful of mermaids for whom he had to invent a garden. He overcame the challenge with love and care, so the sirens would not be homesick. The young, gracile half-women creatures were to be accompanied by other marine beings in their natural environment, the Mediterranean Sea, the Mare Nostrum (“our sea”) of the Romans, and so he let them go, sgraffitoed in this garden he created for them.
It has been said that, for this work, Casas was inspired by The Great Wave off Kanagawa, by Katsushika Hokusai (Tokyo 1760–1849), one of the most important artists of ukiyo-e, or “pictures of the floating world,” school. The Great Wave is the first and most famous print in the series Thirty-six views of Mount Fuji, and it shows the crest of a giant wave in the midst of a tempest. Both the work and the author were well kown in European artistic circles, especially in France, which was a meeting place for artists from all over the world.
