Prostitute

Nonell, one of the most unusual characters in the Catalan art world of the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth, centred his attention on depicting people on the fringes of society, such as cretins, beggars and homecoming soldiers, a subject matter that raised a certain controversy among the bourgeoisie and the well-to-do society of the time. From 1901 he felt a certain predilection for representing Gypsies, which he gave vent to in both painting and drawing until 1908. In this drawing we see a tendency in Nonell to synthesise his figures and turn them into corporeal forms through the use of colour and line, while rejecting anecdotal aspects.