Carles Casagemas i Coll was a Catalan artist and writer who was born in Barcelona on September 27th within a bourgeois family. Casagemas was considered one of the most singular Catalan artists within the framework of the second modernist generation. His main artistic reference was Isidre Nonell.
Casagemas initially had a studio in the street of Nou de la Rambla where literary evenings were organized with his friends. Picasso did various portraits of Casagemas, the first known ones dating back to At the end of September both friends went on a trip to Paris during which Casagemas fell in love with the model Laure Gargallo her maiden name , better known as Germaine. The asymmetrical relation between Casagemas and Germaine started deteriorating along with his mental state, who at the same time increased considerably his consumption of alcohol.
To such an extent that once when she mocked Casagemas, he threatened to commit suicide. At Christmas of the same year, the two friends returned to Barcelona and subsequently spent the New Year in Malaga with the excuse of distracting Casagemas. Far from sorting out his amorous problems, after some weeks the two friends ended up going their separate ways: Picasso would go to Madrid and Casagemas, after a brief visit to Barcelona, would return once again to Paris.
They neversaw each other again. Casagemas was little more than 20 years old. The death of his friend profoundly affected Picasso, who produced some works about his death and his burial and subsequently more portraits. It is said that his suicide generated the blue period of the artist and in fact Casagemas is the main protagonist of La Vie ,the major work of this period, of which an exhibition was held in in the museum.
Curiously, in the sketches prior to the work the face of the man represented was that of Picasso, but in the final painting the male face was that of Casagemas himself. The location of his tomb has always been a cause for controversy. Now a study of by Dolors R. And in fact, since Claude Picasso, the son of the artists, has been charged the maintenance of the tomb. Carles Casagemas Exposicions relacionades.
