Miquel Utrillo

Miquel Utrillo i Morlius (16 February 1862 in Barcelona – 20 January 1934 in Sitges) was a Spanish art critic, scenographer, painter and engineer.

He was born to the lawyer, Miquel Utrillo i Riu, originally from Tremp, a liberal republican who lived in exile in France from 1867 to 1882, and his wife, Ramona Morlius i Borràs, from Lleida.

[1] After two years there, he returned to his homeland; moving in with Santiago Rusiñol, a friend from his previous stay in Spain, who had become part of a growing artistic community in Sitges.

He also worked with the poet, Joan Maragall, to produce illustrations for his translation of Iphigénie en Tauride, an opera by Christoph Willibald Gluck.

Around that same time, the Franco-American art collector, Charles Deering, commissioned Utrillo to design a space near Sitges to house his collection.

This was alleviated somewhat by his participation in the 1929 Barcelona International Exposition, where he helped design and create the architectural museum known as the "Poble Espanyol".

[3] In 1930, his friend Rusiñol made efforts to rehabilitate Utrillo's reputation, as part of converting his home into what is now known as the Cau Ferrat Museum.