Ramón Casas i Carbó (1866-1932) was a Catalan Spanish artist. Living through a turbulent time in the history of his native Barcelona, he was known as a portraitist who sketched and painted the intellectual, economic and political elite of Barcelona, Paris, Madrid and beyond; he was also known for his paintings of crowd scenes ranging from the audience at a bullfight to the assembly for an execution to rioters in the Barcelona streets. Also a graphic designer, his posters and postcards helped to define the Catalan art movement known as Modernisme.

In the 1890s, Casas was one of many artists exercising their artistic talents around the Moulin de la Galette in Paris. Casas and his friend, and fellow artist, Santiago Rusinol, constructed...