Charles Deering Book Signing

Many would expect a book signing at the Deering Estate to be stuffy event…especially a book about Charles Deering’s relationship with an artist. They would be wrong.

On a near perfect evening, the Deering Estate Foundation saw about 100 people turn out on a glorious evening to meet “Charles Deering and Ramon Casas: A Friendship in Art” author Isabel Coll Mirabent.

The author is a charming woman who herself has some interesting genealogy, including a relationship with the Bacardi family. A tenured professor at the University of Barcelona, she knew just how to introduce her book and make the evening light and fun.

Also on hand were Todd and Blair Maus of Deering Wines. Blair is the great great granddaughter of Charles Deering and together they poured their Sonoma vintages for tasting. The wines were wonderful, especially since they were enjoyed on the historic Deering Estate. “We named the vineyard Deering to honor the agricultural heritage of the family,” explained Maus.

 In the book, you learn about the development and dramatic dissolution of a three-way friendship that connected the Spanish painter Ramón Casas (1866–1932); the Chicago industrialist Charles Deering (1852–1927), who was a collector and admirer of Casas’s work as well as a patron of Northwestern University; and the Spanish artist Miguel Utrillo (1862–1934), Casas’s lifelong friend and the father of the French painter Maurice Utrillo.