Montserrat Casas de Nieto, in Evening Dress

This is an important work in the painter’s mature period, his last great moment. It was certainly painted a short time before his brief stay in Madrid (1904) during which, as a painter who already much sought after, he painted King Alfonso XIII. This is a portrait of his older sister, who was painted in her youth by the artist in the other great painting of the current Santander Collection. Castillo described it as a work “of extreme virtuosity”, and Utrillo placed it among the six or seven best portraits by Casas.