SANTIAGO RUSIÑOL | Castell Gris, Mallorca

Jaume Torrents, Mallorca (a gift from the artist. Torrents was a well-known pharmacist from Sóller); thence by descent to the present owners

La Roqueta, Palma de Mallorca, 31 December 1902, illustrated

Zaid, in El Diluvio, Barcelona, 2 February 1903

Raimon Casellas, in La Veu de Catalunya, Barcelona, 5 February 1903

B. Bassegoda, in Diario de Barcelona, Barcelona, 6 February 1903

Alfredo Opisso, 'Exposición Rusiñol', in La Vanguardia, Barcelona, 7 February 1903, p. 4, mentioned

Manuel Rodríguez Codolà, 'Exposición Rusiñol', in Arquitectura y Constructicción, Barcelona, 7 april 1903, p. 119, illustrated (as Castell gris)

Por esos mundos, Madrid, June 1904, p. 576, illustrated 

Gran enciclopèdia de la pintura i l'escultura a les Balears, vol. IV, Palma de Mallorca, 1996, p. 178, illustrated (as Castell del Rei)

Josep de Calassanç Laplana & Mercedes Palau-Ribes O'Callaghan, La pintura de Santiago Rusiñol. Obra completa. Vol. III: Catàleg sistemàtic, Barcelona, 2004, p. 135, no. 15.3.5, catalogued & illustrated

In spring 1902, Rusiñol was invited by his friend and fellow artist Joaquim Mir to take up residence in Caseta de la Rosas in Pollença, Mallorca, a semi-derelict house in proximity of Castel del Rei, an ancient fortress used by the Moors and later strengthened by Jaume I during his reign as king of Mallorca from 1231 to 1276. Adventurous by nature, Rusiñol gladly accepted the offer. His stay resulted in six exquisite landscapes which, including the present work, were amongst the twenty-six works exhibited at the Círculo Mallorquín in Palma de Mallorca that same year. Depicted nestled on the top of a mountain and gently lit by sunset, Castel Gris must have been an unidentified derelict fortress in proximity of Castel del Rei.

Rusiñol was a frequent visitor to Mallorca, recording his trips in the book L'illa de la calma (1922).