Sunday Evening Art Gallery — Santiago Rusiñol

Santiago Rusiñol i Prats (25 February 1861 – 13 June 1931) was a Spanish painter, poet and playwright. He was one of the leaders of the Catalan Modernism movement.His training as painter started at Centro de Acuarelistas de Barcelona under the direction of Tomás Moragas. Like so many artists of the day, he travelled to Paris in 1889, living in Montmartre with Ramon Casas and Ignacio Zuloaga.It is said that much of his work in Paris belonged to the Symbolism painting style, although most of his work reflected the Art Noveau style of swirling lines and often ethereal nature.Rusiñol is best known as a painter of Spanish gardens.His paintings have a surrealistic tinge to them, making you want to step right through them and see the landscape for yourself.The ancestral home in Sitges Santiago Rusiñol inherited was converted by the painter into a Museum. He showcased the fruit of his work as collector throughout his life, which included irons and Catalan glasses and antique ebusitas Cau Ferrat alongside his own paintings.When a Madrid-born journalist interviewed Rusiñol at the end of his life, he asked: “Why have you painted gardens preferably?” The artist replied: “Because with the gardens I had my first success in Paris, and then, for having felt this modality (sensation) more than the others.”