‘Centenari Maricel (1918-2018)’

The Maricel Centenary exhibition, which presents the Maricel Museum, shows the process of building one of the most outstanding and relevant architectural works of the Noucentisme culminated one hundred years ago: the Maricel ensemble. The ensemble became one of the Catalan cultural icons, Maricel hosted an extraordinary collection of art gathered by Charles Deering, from which thirty pieces are now shown. The exhibition, which can be seen until February 24, illustrates the central body of the commemoration carried out throughout the year by Museums of Sitges and integrated in the chapter of official commemorations of the Generalitat of Catalonia. Maricel Centenary (1918 - 2018) has as curators Ignasi Domènech - collection of Museums of Sitges - and Sebastià Sánchez Sauleda, authors of different works on Maricel. The exhibition will be inaugurated, today Thursday, November 15, by the President of the Generalitat, Quim Torra.

The Maricel Centenary Exhibition (1918 - 2018) presents 113 works, including paintings, drawings, photographs, tiles, plans and models, which allow contextualising the crucial importance of this extraordinary work promoted by the industrialist Charles Deering (1852-1927) and directed by the engineer, painter, poster artist and art critic Miquel Utrillo (1862-1934), as well as the outstanding Hispanic art collection present during early years. The exhibition contains thirty works that had been part of the Charles Deering collection, which he later moved to the United States. He also presents two unpublished paintings by Ramon Casas.

The exhibition provides a detailed view of the project conceived by Utrillo to satisfy Deering's wishes. Utrillo's initiative consisted in transforming the old hospital of Sant Joan Baptista, built in the 14th century, the house between the hospital and the Cau Ferrat (Can Xicarrons) and several houses on both sides of the street of Fonollar in a magnificent architectural ensemble that had to perform the functions of residence (Maricel de Mar) and a space to house the art collections of the American industrialist, which would later become the Maricel Palace.

Maricel Centenary (1918 - 2018) offers a complete portrait of Charles Deering and explains the reasons that led him to build the Maricel ensemble, while providing an overview of the importance of his collection, consisting of medieval altarpieces and works by artists such as El Greco, Goya, Zurbarán, Murillo, Meifrèn and the most recent works of Casas, Rusiñol or Zuloaga. The exhibition vindicates the ambitious Deering and Utrillo project, which, years after the moments of maximum splendor of the Cau Ferrat of Santiago Rusiñol, once again placed Sitges as a reference in the world of culture and art. Maricel became a point of reference in the cultural circuits of the country - which came to Sitges to admire the result of the work - and one of the credentials to present the excellence represented by Noucentisme. The outstanding collection of Hispanic art gathered by Charles Deering contributed to convert Maricel into a focus of art of first level and with international importance

The works in the exhibition
The exhibition presents some thirty works from what was the Deering Collection, which returns to Sitges on the occasion of the exhibition and which embrace from the Middle Ages to Modern Art from the beginning of the 20th century. The exhibition features works by Ramon Casas, Antoni Viladomat, Hermen Anglada-Camarasa, Josep Clarà, Gustau Violet, Joaquim Sunyer, Enric Galwey, Jacques Mathey, Antoni de Ferrater, three medieval altarpieces and a Virgin of the last third of the 14th century.

Casas is the most represented artist, with eighteen oils and drawings, including two unpublished paintings: Maricel’s lookout (without documented data) and Female Portrait (1904-05), both from private collections.

The works that make up the exhibition come from various public and private collections, such as the Carmen Thyssen Museum in Malaga, the National Art Museum of Catalonia, the Museum of Modernism in Barcelona, ​​the Library of Catalonia, the Ametller Institute of Hispanic Art, the Diocesan and Regional Museum of Lleida, the Museum of Valencia or the Museum of Reus, among others. The exhibition also features unpublished photographs from the Deering Estate (Miami). In addition, there is also an excellent sample of documents from the Santiago Rusiñol Library, the Historical Archive of Sitges and the Sitges Heritage Consortium. There are also pieces borrowed from private collections such as the collections of Artur Ramon and Lluís Bassat.

Maricel today
The Maricel ensemble is one of the most significant spaces in Sitges. Its different buildings accommodate various cultural services and institutions: the Maricel Museum (the building also known as Maricel de Mar), the Maricel Palace (Maricel de Terra) and the adjacent spaces, which are the headquarters of the Santiago Rusiñol Library, the Historic Archive of Sitges and the Casa Lola Anglada.

Charles Deering: the drive behind Maricel
Charles Deering was an important businessman, co-owner of the Deering Harvester Company, the most important company in the manufacture of agricultural machinery in his country. As an art collector, he was part of a restricted group of the American economic elite who converted the search for European masterpieces in the passion of their lives, halfway between philanthropy and the construction of an image that reflects social ascent. Deering arrived in Sitges in 1909, accompanied by his friend and protege, the painter Ramon Casas (1866-1932), to visit Cau Ferrat and his creator, Santiago Rusiñol (1861-1931). Fascinated by the beauty of the town, he decided to start the project that in 1910 became Maricel.

The person whom Deering entrusted to carry out the works of Maricel was the engineer, painter, poster designer and art critic, Miquel Utrillo. Between them they created a project and an important collection that sought to explain the history of Hispanic art from the thirteenth century to its days.

Miquel Utrillo: Maricel's ideologist
Miquel Utrillo, engineer, artist and art critic, was the creator of Maricel. Required by Charles Deering, he took over the project from the start. He equipped it with a style unit that covered the facades and the spatial conception, reaching the smallest ornamental details. He incorporated different architectural and artistic elements from different origins into buildings. Fruit of his vision, the Maricel ensemble was configured as we know it today.

We owe to Utrillo the name of Maricel, the name of a play by Àngel Guimerà and the symbol that identifies the project. Based on a previous design he had done for the book Oracions (1897), by Santiago Rusiñol, Utrillo created an emblem, formed by the sun and the sea, which transcended borders and that, one hundred years later, still maintains its validity, impact and modernity.

A palace in the neighborhood of Sant Joan
Maricel is built in the center of the old district of Sant Joan. When Charles Deering settled there, it was formed by the hospital building (14th century), by the Town Hall, by the church and by modest fishermen's and small-town houses. Among the neighbors found by the American there was Santiago Rusiñol, owner of Cau Ferrat. The house-workshop of the artist, designed by the architect Francesc Rogent in 1894 granted prestige to the neighborhood and became one of the most outstanding focuses of Modernisme in Catalonia, thanks to the Modernist Festivities and the continuous passage of artists both from the country as from outside.

With the arrival of Deering and the construction of Maricel, the district of Sant Joan was transformed completely and changed its appearance. From that moment on, the old quarter of the town became one of the most charismatic places in Catalonia.

The protagonists (1904-1909)
After receiving the advice of painter Anders Zorn, Deering acquired the Portrait of Erik Satie (1891), by Ramon Casas, at the World's Columbian Exhibition in Chicago in 1893. He was fascinated by his work, which he followed by through the exhibitions in Paris and Madrid.

In 1904 Deering traveled to Barcelona to meet the painter in person. In the studio of the artist, Utrillo performed as an interpreter and the collector acquired several works, among them In summer every bug is alive, After the bath and Yard in Vinyet , and invited him to visit the United States.

In 1908 Casas accepted the invitation and spent a long time visiting the United States with Deering. During his stay, he painted an important number of portraits of his family and friends, before returning to Barcelona in April 1909. In September of that same year Casas took Deering to Sitges to visit the Cau Ferrat, which he wanted to acquire. When he faced the refusal of Rusiñol, the opportunity arose to buy the old hospital of Sant Joan Baptista. Miquel Utrillo initiated the proceedings and, as of that moment, the American entrusted him the conversion of the building to his residence, as well as the progressive construction of the Maricel ensemble.

The construction of the art collection
Due to his broad culture, friendships with artists from all over the world and his knowledge of the art and antique market, Utrillo was the person that Charles Deering needed to expand his collections and present them in Sitges. The American pursued the objective of spreading the importance of Hispanic art throughout the centuries. To achieve this, he assembled complete sets of all the arts, to which they added a sample of French painting and a select representation of Eastern art.

Maricel hosted an important group of medieval altarpieces from Catalonia, Castile, Navarra and Aragon, among which stood out the Sant Jordi and the dragon by Bernat Martorell. Also present were names such as Andrea Sabatini, El Greco, Francisco de Zurbarán, Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, Antonio Palomino, Antoni Viladomat, Francisco de Goya or Vicente López, among others.

One of the strong points of the collection was the art of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Of all the artists present, Ramon Casas was the best represented, but also exhibited paintings by Santiago Rusiñol, Julio Romero de Torres, Darío de Regoyos, Ignacio Zuloaga, Hermen Anglada-Camarasa and sculptures by Josep Llimona, Josep Clarà, Enric Casanovas or Gustau Violet.

The exhibition presents some of these works, and others that illustrate the importance of Maricel in the Catalan cultural world.

The halls of Maricel
At the residence of Charles Deering there were two types of halls, those aimed exclusively at showing works of art, and those reserved for housing when he and his family came to Sitges, or to accommodate guests who often visited him. Utrillo's passion for collecting and artistic sense meant that they were all decorated with the most exquisite works of art.

Among the first group stood out the Sala de Pintura Moderna, located in this gallery that leads to the current Sala Sert. The works of contemporary artists were present there, including paintings by Hermen Anglada-Camarasa, Joaquim Mir, Eliseu Meifrèn or Julio Romero de Torres, among others.

The private halls contained works of art and old furniture of Hispanic or Portuguese origin, to which the Deering returned their domestic function, lost long ago to become objects of collecting.

The paintings of Josep Maria Sert
Josep Maria Sert (1874-1945) was one of the most outstanding artists of his generation and the most famous decorative painter of his time. His relevance and friendship with Utrillo led to the commissioning of the mural decoration of the main entrance in the residence of Charles Deering, located in the tower of Sant Miquel, at the beginning of 1915.

Sert executed the comission expeditiously and, at the end of August 1916, the group was already installed in this hall. Made up of six panels, it shows the story of the Great War through different episodes and evocations.

When in September 1921, Charles Deering moved the art collections, he also took away the Sert canvases and gave them to his daughter Barbara. In 1925, Sert asked the American to give them to show them at the Exhibition of Decorative Arts in Paris. After a long period, the canvases were acquired by Dr. Jesús Pérez-Rosales, thanks to which they returned to their original location, in 1970.

Take the guided tour to exhibiton ‘Centenari Maricel (1918-2018)’

Take the guided tour ‘A walk through the Charles Deering’s Maricel’