Santiago Rusiñol's family were in textiles and he worked in the family business until the age of 25. He was a student of Tomás Moragas. He travelled to Paris in 1887 with Ramón Casas, the engraver Ramón Canudas Serra, the sculptor Enric Clarasó and Miguel Utrillo. During his time there he attended the Crevec Academy, where he studied under Puvis de Chavannes. He later travelled to Italy, where he painted in the Tivoli and Frascati gardens. On his return to Spain, he began to work almost exclusively on painting Spanish gardens, especially after a trip to Granada in 1897: La Granja, Majorca, Valencia, Barcelona and above all Aranjuez. He took part in almost all the national exhibitions held from 1887 to 1930, winning second-prize medals in 1890 and 1895 and first-prize medals in 1908, 1912 and 1929. He also entered several international exhibitions: the Barcelona Expo of 1889, the Berlin Expo of 1893 and the Chicago Expo of 1910. From 1980 to 1930 he held exhibitions almost every year with Ramón Casas and Enric Clarasó at the Parés Gallery. He was a man of many talents and a lover of the arts. He was also one of the core members of the discussion group known as Els Quatre Gats. After his return to Spain, he filled his house (called Cau Ferrat) in the town of Sitges with a major collection of artistic iron-work, furnishings, sculptures and paintings which he subsequently donated to the town. He was a writer of novels and plays, including L’auca del senyor Esteve, which premiered highly successfully in 1917. He also contributed to newspapers including La Vanguardia and magazines such as L’Esquella de la Torratxa. He died while painting the gardens in Aranjuez. His donation of his home and the collection housed there enabled Sitges to set up the Cau Ferrat Museum, which opened in 1933.

• María José Alonso
• Julián Gállego Serrano