Portrait of a Man 1890 - 1895

Santiago Rusiñol sketched this man, perhaps in charcoal, capturing his likeness with a striking immediacy. The scarf tied loosely around the neck, the cigarette jauntily held in the mouth – these are symbols of a bohemian spirit, a conscious divergence from bourgeois norms. Consider the cigarette itself. It is more than a mere habit; it is a statement. We can see the cigarette appear time and again, from Toulouse-Lautrec's depictions of Parisian nightlife to countless film noir antiheroes. Each time, it carries a similar message, one of defiance, independence, and perhaps a touch of world-weariness. This simple object becomes a potent symbol. The image resonates with a timeless allure, inviting us to ponder the ever-evolving dance between self-expression and societal expectations, revealing how symbols resurface, transformed, throughout history.