Sardanes an der Font de Sant Roc in Olot

Sardanes an der Font de Sant Roc in Olot, at the Círculo del Liceo in Barcelona, depicts the traditional Catalan circle dance performed at a public fountain in Olot, a town in the Garrotxa region of inland Catalonia. Painted by Ramon Casas in 1903, the work belongs to his sustained documentation of Catalan cultural life at a moment when Catalanism — the assertion of a distinct Catalan identity within the Spanish state — was a charged political and cultural force. The sardana was one of its most potent symbols, and Casas's painting of the dance was a statement about Catalan identity as much as an artistic subject.

Casas deploys his characteristic confident draughtsmanship to render the circular formation of the dancers, whose linked hands and upright posture convey the formal dignity of the traditional dance. His Parisian training in plein-air observation informs the outdoor setting, the fountain and trees of the background establishing the specific Olot location without sacrificing atmospheric freshness.