Le Sacré Coeur, Montmartre

Le Sacré Coeur, Montmartre, at the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya in Barcelona, records the basilica under construction on the Butte Montmartre — a view Casas would have seen during his extended Parisian sojourn in the 1890s and early 1900s. The Sacré-Cœur's construction, begun in 1875 and continuing into the twentieth century, made it an inescapable presence in the Montmartre neighbourhood where Casas spent much of his time when in Paris. Its whiteness against the Paris sky, the building rising above the artists' quarter, gave it a specific resonance within the bohemian world Casas inhabited there.

Casas renders the basilica's white stone with a Parisian atmospheric freshness learned from his study of contemporary French painting, the building's mass handled with the tonal sensitivity of a painter trained to observe outdoor architecture in changing light. His compositional placement of the church against sky suggests familiarity with the slightly elevated viewpoints common in Montmartre topographic views.