Lot 18
  • 18

Santiago Rusiñol

Estimate
80,000 - 120,000 GBP
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Description

  • Santiago Rusiñol
  • The Seamstress, Sitges
  • signed S. Rusiñol lower right
  • oil on canvas
  • 96 by 87cm., 37¾ by 34¼in.

Provenance

Private collection, Barcelona
Sale: Subastas Brok, Barcelona, December 1990, lot 391 (as Interior de Sitges)
Private collection, Barcelona, until 2013

Exhibited

Barcelona, Sala Parés, Exposición Rusiñol, 1894
Barcelona, Sala Parés, Pintores de Fama, 1942, no. 12 (as Figura cosiendo)

Literature

Josep Maria Jordà, 'Exposición Rusiñol', in La Publicidad, 19 October 1894, p. 2 (as Interior de Sitges)
Ramon Casellas, 'Exposición Rusiñol', in La Vanguardia, 21 October 1894, p. 5
Ignasi Bo i Singla, in La Voz de Sitges, 21 December 1894, p. 2
Juan Benet, 'Un interior de Rusiñol, subastado por 17 millones', in La Vanguardia, 22 December 1990, p. 44
Isabel Coll Mirabent, Santiago Rusiñol, Sabadell, 1992, p. 260, illustrated (as Mujer cosiendo, dated circa 1892)
Josep de C. Laplana, Santiago Rusiñol. L’obra, l’home, Barcelona, 1995, p. 210, no. 7.16
Josep de C. Laplana & Mercedes Palau-Ribes O'Callaghan, La pintura de Santiago Rusiñol. Obra completa. Vol. III: Catàleg sistemàtic, Barcelona, 2004, p. 71, no. 7.2.5, catalogued & illustrated

Condition

The canvas has not been lined and is securely attached to a keyed wooden stretcher. There are three minor spots of paint flaking in the extreme lower framing edge and in the far lower left corner. Inspection under ultra-violet light reveals an area of retouching (with a circa 5 by 20cm patch on the reverse) possibly addressing an old tear in the vases in the background and across the linen to their left. Other scattered spots of retouching are also visible, including some spots in the lower edge, in the wall in the upper left quadrant and in the lower half of the door to the right. This work presents well, is in good overall condition and is ready to hang. Presented in a gilt frame. The whites are brighter in reality than what they appear in the catalogue illustration.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Catalogue Note

Painted in 1894, Interior in Sitges with a Young Woman Sewing belongs to a series of five compositionally related interiors opening on to a garden, executed between 1891-1895. The foreground is taken up by the softly lit parlour typically found in the simple townhouses of Sitges, a fishing village near Barcelona made popular by Rusiñol as a destination for artists. Inside, a seamstress darns linen in an atmosphere of serene calm, absorbed in her thoughts. In the background, a door opens to a courtyard garden or orchard, bathed in sunlight and framed by the door’s arch. This glimpse of the outside works as a painting within the painting. Of the five paintings, three are now in public museums, including the Cau Ferrat in Sitges, Rusiñol’s museum-atelier, for which he personally chose the works on display.  The other two paintings are in the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya in Barcelona, and the Museu d’Art in Girona (fig.1), respectively.

Rusiñol studied under Tomás Moragas (1837-1906) and exhibited as early as 1878, when he was still working in a conventional realist style. He went to Paris in 1889 with Miguel Utrillo (1862-1934) and other artists. There he and his close friend Ramón Casas, who lived with him in the Moulin de la Galette, began to paint suburban views of Paris, mainly of Montmartre, and interior scenes with figures. The pictures of Paris they exhibited in Barcelona in 1890 and 1891 opened Catalan art to a new wave of Impressionism influenced by Edgar Degas and James Abbot McNeill Whistler. Their work exhibited a form of modernism that was symptomatic of the cultural renewal in Catalonia, in which Rusiñol, not only as a painter but also as an active intellectual, was an undisputed leader. From 1897 he was associated with the artists and intellectuals centered at the now famous Barcelona café Els Quatre Gats, which also included the young Pablo Picasso.