Self-portrait

An emblematic figure of Catalan Modernisme, Casas, along with other artists, headed the movement for renovation in the Catalan figurative arts at the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth. The artist's outstanding skills show themselves in this Self-portrait, which belongs to his famous gallery of portraits of the leading society and intellectual figures of his time. Executed in charcoal and donated by the artist in 1909, they make up one of the most important collections kept at the MNAC's Department of Drawings and Engravings. Casas' art as a draughtsman became well known through his designs for posters and his magazine illustrations.