Picasso vs. Rusiñol

Picasso vs. Rusiñol explores the various connections between the two artists and also enables us to infer the influence of Rusiñol and of Barcelona's artistic milieu on Picasso, an influence the Spanish artist would gradually shake off as his Parisian experience was consolidated.

The years in which he lived in Barcelona, from 1895 to 1904, proved decisive for Picasso insofar as they marked the end of his academic training and the beginning of his career as an artist. The painter, man of letters, collector, journalist and cultural activist Santiago Rusiñol was one of the most complex and representative artists of the period, and Picasso took him as a model: he portrayed him, analysed him, copied him and eventually surpassed him.

For the first time, Picasso's regard for Rusiñol is revealed. The connection enables us to trace the influence that the Barcelona art world had on Picasso, and how he responded ambivalently to that influence, gradually distancing himself from it as his Parisian experience proved increasingly significant.