Study of a Standing Woman

Casas was one of the leaders of a group of artists who met at the cafe Els Quatre Gats in Barcelona during the period of the 1900s. Influenced by his contact in Paris with the Nabis and Toulouse­Lautrec, Casas explored the new subject matter of contemporary scenes and cafe life. This drawing, which may have been intended as a design for an advertisement in a Spanish magazine, is inscribed to Charles Deering, a Chicago businessman, amateur painter, and early donor to the Art Institute, who formed a close friendship with Casas during the early part of the century.