MNAC Modern Art Collection

This covers the modern art collections at the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, 'modern' in this case specifically meaning Catalan art from the great awakening moments of the Renaixença to the advent of Franco and the Civil War. As of 2014, the collection has been arranged according to four themes: the Modern Arts, Modernisme, Noucentism (the post-First World War reaction to the decorative, 'irrational' aspects of Modernisme and desire to 'return to order', and Art and Civil War).

Some of the biggest works are by Marià Fortuny (1838–74), the leading painter in Catalonia and Spain painter of the mid-19th century. His virtuoso Vicaria wowed them in Rome, where he spent most of his short life: exotic and mysterious, with shimmering coloured costumes. The Disputació de Barcelona sent him to Morocco in 1860 to draw battle scenes: the result was his enormous Battle of Tetuan (1863), full of the dust and chaos of war, honouring the 500 Catalan volunteers who fought under General Prim.