Carlos Casagemas
Carlos Casagemas
7 min read
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.
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.
