Júlia Peraire, Ramon Casas' Definitive Muse

Júlia Peraire, Ramon Casas’ defnitive muse Emiliano Cano Díaz Over the last few years, the fgure of Júlia Peraire i Ricarte (Sant Martí de Provençals, 1888-Barcelona, 1941), a model from 1905 and Ramon Casas’ wife from 1922, has quiet- ly begun to take her true place in the painter’s artistic work, thanks to the identifca- tion and consideration of more than a hundred portraits, including paintings and sketches, that show her as Casas’ defnitive muse, equal to what Saskia was for Rem- brandt, Aline for Raimundo de Madrazo and Gala for Dalí. However, this has not always been the case, and it is worth remembering that never during Casas’ life was she mentioned by her name or even her initials in the titles of exhibited works, as was the custom for personal portraits, and while Josep Maria Jordá, Casas’ friend and frst biog- rapher, did not write even one line about Júlia in his book published in 1931, Alberto del Castillo in his 1958 biography only mentioned her in the chapter on the artist’s “complete decline”.1 Bearing in mind the quality of her portraits, it is paradoxical that the entire production of Júlias has been framed within what many consider the painter’s “bad period”, which grosso modo would coincide with him abandoning the painting of social chronicles, af- Fig. 1. (Adjacent page) ter the ofcial awards received for La Càrrega [The Charge], and of the classless Pari- With his palette and sian fgures that Raimon Casellas liked so much, being the frst critic who warned, with inseparable pipe, Casas drew himself indignation, of the painter’s new direction. This is what he said in his review of the 5th painting a svelte Júlia International Art Exhibition in Barcelona (1907), where for the frst time two portraits Peraire dressed in a of Júlia were exhibited: [The Flora] (National Museum of Fine Arts of Havana) Manila shawl with a La Flora carnation in her hair. and La Sargantain (Cercle del Liceu of Barcelona): “Look at Casas today and compare him with the Casas of a few years ago. Then he was a Júlia Posing for Ramon Casas. painter indiferent to daily realities; now he is the artist arranging select situations. (…) And Pencil and watercolour even the fgures posed by the professional model [Júlia], garnished as they are with shiny on paper, 1912. ramon casas: complete catalogue / volume i ramon casas: complete catalogue / volume i Figs. 2-4. In posters, fabrics, depicted as they are in a phony attitude and swathed in elegant coquetry, made postcards, illustrations clear the private efort to embellish, to refne the humble possibilities of vulgar existence.2 and magazine covers like those shown here, the In the same vein as Casellas, Folch i Torres subsequently expressed himself, as did the work of Ramon Casas, aforementioned Castillo, Pla, and later Fontbona and Alcolea Albero (1990), who af- Júlia Peraire’s face was frmed that in his last period: abundantly reproduced in modernist Barcelona. “(…) he chooses what seems to him to be easier and more comfortable. He paints and re- paints Julia Peraire and, even worse, Casas, once refned, urban and for some even deca- Júlia, the Painter. dent, becomes a rural landscapist.” 3 Cover of La Campana de Gracia, issue 2,000, More recently, in the 2001 anthological exhibition Cristina Mendoza refers to La Sar- published on gantain as his last masterpiece, and justifes that “in this exhibition a choice has been 7 September 1907. made to hint at later works and insist, however, on the works that deservedly made Ca- Fig. 5. Here we see a drawing used as 4 Júlia, the Artist. sas the best painter of Modernisme”, identical criteria to that followed in the principal a promotional card Cover of Progreso 2016 exhibition for the 150th anniversary of Casas’ birth: for Fayans Català, magazine, July 1911. Ramon Casas. The Desired Mo- in which, once again, the last 25 years of the painter’s work were left out. Howev- an establishment that dernity began selling ceramics Júlia With a er, it is worth insisting on the artistic validity and interest of Casas’ work in his fnal before expanding Black Mantilla. its business until Cover of Feminal, stage, and particularly in Júlia’s portraits, as another of Casas’ biographers, Josep F. Ra- advertising as 25 April 1915. fols, reasoned in a letter dated 6th March 1958 to Ainaud de Lasarte, Director of the Art “parfumerie aux fleurs”. Museums of Barcelona: “Perhaps the contrast between Casas’ good period and bad period appears too signifcant- Júlia Holding a Bottle of Perfume. ly [in the biography by Alberto del Castillo]. Perhaps, if we wish to be profoundly fair, we Charcoal and sanguine should no longer talk of this contrast. Also, everybody has insisted on reminding us that on paper, c. 1906. ramon casas: complete catalogue / volume i ramon casas: complete catalogue / volume i Casas enjoyed good food and drink. It is true that this contributed to his artistic deca- dence, but it did not stop him from making (even in his later years) some very expressive faces in the most regal portraits of Júlia.” (Catalonia National Archive). To fnish the review of Júlia’s critical success, one must acknowledge the quantitative leap that the news and images contained in the catalogue raisonné of Ramon Casas by Isabel Coll (1999, 2002) meant for their knowledge and appreciation, where Casas’ fnal period is dealt with without falling into the former prejudice; as well as novelties in the model’s biography contained in the section “Ramon Casas’ women” in the catalogue for the �’Encis de la Dona [Women’s Charm] (2007) exhibition, by Mercedes Palau-Ribes with the as- sistance of Josep de C. Laplana. In 2013 the doc- 5 umentary Júlia, by Emiliano Cano, was released covering research on the character later pub- 6 lished in Goya magazine (2018). Finally, in 2016 the exhibition Júlia, el Desig [Júlia, The Desire] was presented at the Cercle del Liceu in Barcelo- na, where its curator, Isabel Coll, outlines a very personal vision of Júlia and her circumstances, also managing to bring together a large number of her portraits, although half a dozen of them are really portraits of other models. DRAWING THE LOTTERY SELLER Júlia, born “Junia Victoria” on 30th June 1888, sold lottery tickets from 1898 at least, at just 10 years of age, on the corner of the Rambla and the Plaça de Catalunya in front of the Continental Fig. 6. This scene shows Café terrace. Ramon Casas would not regularly frequent it until the end of 1904 or be- us a portrait session in ginning of 1905, after his Madrid stay of 1904, once the Maison Dorée was opened next Fig. 7. In this drawing, Ramon Casas’ studio in Júlia is wearing a Sant Gervasi, Barcelona. to the Continental (14th September 1903), which became the new meeting place for the typical hat decorated Júlia Peraire is sat group of friends after the closure of Els Quatre Gats (26th June 1903). In his biography with red dots, which posing in front of on Casas (1959), Sánchez de Larragoiti takes credit for having introduced him to Júlia, also appears in the the painter, accompanied work Hivern [Winter], by Flora and the whom he had previously photographed, and who quickly became the painter’s favourite an oil painting photographer Adolf Mas. model.7 This is shown by a series of very similar drawings, made for commercial purpos- dated 1912. Photograph taken by es around 1905-1906, in which Casas shows the two profles of Júlia in diferent atti- Júlia With Hat Pelai Mas around 1913. tudes of half and full-length, always with a low-lying hairstyle. They were used in adver- and Parasol. tisements for gorgot liquid soap, Espasa Encyclopedia, wertheim sewing machines, Charcoal and pastel Fayans Català, on a cover for the magazine Progreso [fig. 3], in a drawing of Júlia Llegint on paper, c. 1912. ramon casas: complete catalogue / volume i Fig. 9. This scene is part of an album of Ramon Casas’ drawings that belonged to Charles Deering. This notebook is an example of the artist’s habit of setting down those events and news that were worth highlighting, preferably using images rather than written chronicles. The “Five Júlias” Folding Screen (Self-portrait With Júlia). Pencil, ink and watercolours on paper, c. 1911. Fig. 8. The “Five Júlias” [Júlia reading] (private collection), and in another for the Álbum de Pintores Catalanes De- and with the model’s left hand completely visible. This would later be hidden by a series Folding Screen originally [Album of Catalan painters for Alfonso XIII], where some origi- of somewhat rough brushstrokes, that remove some strength from the fgure perhaps to decorated the room in dicado a Alfonso XIII the Maricel Palace nals where hastily gathered together as a gift for the King upon his marriage to Victoria show her as less shameless. For the rest, using the nickname “Sargantain” to refer to in Sitges, shown here. Eugenia of Battenberg. Júlia was not at all unusual as Casas and Utrillo were very prone to using them. Casas’s It comprised five hinged Ricard Salvá (Andrés Corzuelo) is the frst journalist to notice the young lottery seller’s close friends called him “Ciscu” or “Francisquet”, Rusiñol was “Mus”, Clarasó “Vicen- screens, each decorated with a portrait of presence in an article on the aforementioned 5th International Art Exhibition of Barce- tó”, and Utrillo “Señor Domingo”. Even the model seems to have been part of the game Júlia representing lona (1907), which he revealingly entitled “Julia”.

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