Garrote vil (Garrotte)

In 1893 Barcelona carried out its first execution in 30 years, garrotting a 19-year-old named Aniceto Peinador before a large crowd. Ramon Casas was among the onlookers, and this is what he made of it. He keeps the killing itself small and distant, the executioner and priests up on the scaffold seen from above, and gives most of the canvas to the mass of people who came to watch. Casas had trained partly as an illustrator, and he treats the scene like a news report rather than a horror show. When he showed it in Madrid in 1895 it took a prize, and the state bought it for its museum of modern art.