Spanish painter born in Barcelona in 1880, and intimate friend of Pablo Picasso. His tragic death by suicide in Paris in 1901 directly inspired Picasso's Blue Period.
Carlos Casagemas
Carlos Casagemas
7 min read
Frequently asked questions
Key Facts
- Born on June 27, 1880, in Barcelona
- Close friend of Picasso from their meeting at the Els Quatre Gats café around 1899
- Traveled to Paris with Picasso in 1900 for the World's Fair
- Shot himself in the head on February 17, 1901, at the Café Hippodrome in Paris
- His death plunged Picasso into grief, triggering the Blue Period (1901–1904)
Works & Achievements
A collection of portraits and studies produced during his training in Barcelona, reflecting both his academic apprenticeship and his keen interest in the human figure. These works show the influence of Catalan modernisme on his palette.
During his stay in Paris, Casagemas sketched and painted the life of the Montmartre district — its cafés, its characters, its nocturnal atmosphere. These works, partly preserved in private collections, bear witness to his sensitivity to everyday reality.
Casagemas was also a man of letters: his writings, blending romanticism and melancholy in a Symbolist vein, form a literary body of work that reveals an artistic sensibility of his own, distinct from his activity as a painter.
Produced in the studio he shared with Picasso in Montmartre, these drawings show two friends working side by side, mutually influencing each other in an intense creative rivalry that came to an abrupt end in February 1901.
Anecdotes
Carlos Casagemas and Pablo Picasso met in Barcelona around 1899 in the artistic circles that gathered at the Els Quatre Gats café. The two young men became inseparable, sharing a common passion for painting and poetry. Together, they decided to try their luck in Paris, the world capital of the arts.
In October 1900, Casagemas and Picasso arrived in Paris for the Universal Exhibition. They settled into a studio in Montmartre, at the heart of the bohemian neighborhood where painters, poets, and artists from all over Europe rubbed shoulders. It was there that Casagemas fell hopelessly in love with a young Spanish model named Germaine — a feeling she did not return.
On February 17, 1901, Casagemas invited his friends to dinner at a restaurant on the Boulevard de Clichy. Mid-meal, he pulled out a revolver, fired in Germaine's direction and missed, then turned the weapon on himself. He died in hospital a few hours later, at just 20 years old.
Casagemas's death directly inspired some of Picasso's darkest works. In 1901, Picasso painted *The Death of Casagemas* and then *Evocation (The Burial of Casagemas)*. In 1903, he created *La Vie*, a painting in which he depicted his friend as the main figure — works that together mark the opening of his Blue Period.
Although little known as a painter during his lifetime, Casagemas left behind drawings and sketches that reveal a promising talent. He also had a poetic streak, true to the tradition of the total artist championed by Catalan Modernisme, whose practitioners worked simultaneously in painting, writing, and music.
Primary Sources
In these letters sent from Paris, Casagemas enthusiastically describes life in Montmartre, the artists he met, and his pictorial hopes, but also the romantic torments that intensified with each passing week.
The letters exchanged between the two friends during their time apart bear witness to their artistic complicity and to Picasso's growing concern for his friend's mental state, particularly during the stay in Málaga.
Sabartès, Picasso's secretary and intimate friend, recounts Picasso's own words about Casagemas: "His death made me go into blue," explicitly linking the tragedy to the birth of Picasso's most celebrated artistic period.
Parisian newspapers covered the incident as a sensational news story: a young Spanish painter had shot at a woman before turning the gun on himself during a dinner at a Montmartre café.
Key Places
Birthplace of Carlos Casagemas, born in 1880. It was in the Catalan capital that he met Picasso and absorbed Catalan Modernisme, a local artistic movement influenced by European Art Nouveau.
The iconic café at the heart of Barcelona's artistic scene at the turn of the twentieth century, frequented by Casagemas, Picasso, and the entire Catalan avant-garde. It was here that their friendship and shared artistic vision were forged.
The bohemian neighbourhood where Casagemas and Picasso settled in October 1900. A hub of the Parisian artistic avant-garde, Montmartre witnessed the final months of Casagemas's life and became the cradle of Picasso's Blue Period.
The bustling thoroughfare in Montmartre where the Café de l'Hippodrome stood — the scene of the final tragedy on **17 February 1901**. It was here that Carlos Casagemas took his own life, leaving his friend Picasso devastated.
The institution where Casagemas and Picasso received their artistic training in the late 1890s. This academic school was the setting for their first meeting and the beginning of an exceptional friendship that would leave its mark on the history of art.
Typical Objects
Casagemas's everyday tool — he painted with the pigments and techniques fashionable in Barcelona's and Paris's modernist circles. His palette reflected the post-impressionist influence he was discovering in Paris alongside Picasso.
Like all young artists of his generation, Casagemas drew constantly in cafés and studios. His sketchbooks bear witness to his accelerated artistic education through immersion in the creative ferment of Paris.
The emblematic drink of Montmartre's bohemian scene during the Belle Époque, absinthe was ever-present in the cafés frequented by Casagemas and Picasso. His excessive consumption contributed to the deterioration of his mental state in the final months of his life.
Casagemas kept up an active correspondence with his Barcelona friends, including Ramon Reventós. These letters are today precious sources of information about his life in Paris and his state of mind in the months leading up to his death.
Young artists of the Belle Époque fed their imagination on the avant-garde journals that circulated through studios and cafés. Casagemas, drawn to Symbolist poetry, read these publications, which nourished both his pictorial vision and his own writing.
An essential piece of equipment for the travelling painter, the easel allowed Casagemas to work outdoors or to set up quickly in the shared studios he occupied in turn in Barcelona and Paris.
School Curriculum
Vocabulary & Tags
Key Vocabulary
Tags
Daily Life
Morning
Casagemas would wake late, like most bohemian artists in Montmartre. Mornings were devoted to drawing and painting in the studio he shared with Picasso, making use of the natural northern light of Paris to work on portraits and sketches.
Afternoon
In the afternoon, Casagemas and Picasso would visit Parisian galleries and museums — the Louvre, the Musée du Luxembourg — to draw inspiration from the great masters of painting. They also wandered through Montmartre, observing everyday life that fed into their work.
Evening
Evenings were spent in the cafés and cabarets of Montmartre, where Spanish, French, and foreign artists mingled freely. It was in this world that Casagemas met Germaine, whose unrequited love would shatter his life and leave a deep mark on Picasso's work.
Food
Like many broke artists in Montmartre, Casagemas ate frugally: bread, cheese, cold cuts, and occasionally a hot meal at one of the neighbourhood's cheap restaurants. Absinthe and red wine were the drinks of choice during evenings with friends.
Clothing
Casagemas favoured the typical bohemian artist look: dark jacket, wide-brimmed hat, scarf or lavallière knotted at the neck. This deliberately careless style was a pointed rejection of the bourgeois dress codes of the *Belle Époque*.
Housing
In Paris, Casagemas and Picasso shared a modest studio on rue Gabrielle in Montmartre, lent to them by the Catalan painter Isidre Nonell. The room served as both workspace and bedroom, in keeping with the bohemian studio tradition of the Butte.
Historical Timeline
Period Vocabulary
Liens externes & ressources
Références
Œuvres
Portraits et études de figures (Barcelone, 1898-1900)
1898-1900
Scènes de la vie montmartroise (Paris, 1900)
Automne 1900
Poèmes et écrits en catalan et espagnol
1898-1901
Dessins et croquis de l'atelier parisien
1900-1901
