Joaquim Mir

JOAQUIM MIR TRINXET (Barcelona, 1873 - 1940).
"Landscape. Camp de Tarragona, ca. 1910.
Oil on canvas.
Signed in the lower right corner.
Measurements: 32 x 44 cm; 60 x 69 cm (frame).

This painting by Joaquim Mir, belonging to his Camp de Tarragona period, is a clear example of his post-impressionist style, full of light, color and a deep connection with the Catalan landscape.

In the center of the composition stands out the figure of a man standing in profile, dressed in dark tones. His silhouette contrasts with the vibrant environment around him, providing a human point of reference within the vast landscape. The mountains in the background, bathed in an intense orange light, suggest the effect of the sun at dawn or dusk, something Mir was able to capture with great skill. The predominant colors are pinks, oranges and violets in the mountains, intense greens in the vegetation and ochre and gray tones in the foreground. This palette conveys an almost mystical atmosphere, highlighting Mir's emotional relationship with nature.

Mir's stroke, loose and spontaneous, seems to dissolve the forms in a chromatic harmony of clear post-impressionist roots, but with an entirely personal conception. His particular way of understanding the landscape, beyond mere representation, brings him closer to an almost lyrical vision of the rural world, where nature and man merge in a dance of color and light.

The brushstroke is rapid, characteristic of Mir's style at this stage. He uses color directly, with little modeling, which reinforces the immediacy of the captured moment.

During his time in the Camp de Tarragona (especially in the area of L'Aleixar and Maspujols), Joaquim Mir moved away from the hustle and bustle of the city and found in nature a source of pure inspiration. In this period he developed a deeply sensorial and spiritual vision of the landscape, beyond realism, exploring color as a vehicle of emotion.

Joaquim Mir Trinxet is considered one of the greatest exponents of Spanish post-impressionist landscape painting and one of the most outstanding figures of Catalan art in the early 20th century. His training at the San Jordi School of Fine Arts and his link with the Colla del Safrà (a group of Catalan artists who experimented with color and light) marked the beginning of an innovative career. At the end of the 19th century, his time in Madrid and his close relationship with Barcelona's modernism, through circles such as Els Quatre Gats, consolidated his artistic language, although his true transformation came with his stay in Mallorca, where he discovered a landscape that would forever change his way of painting. His work was recognized with numerous awards, including the First Medal at the International Exhibition of Fine Arts in Barcelona (1907), the National Prize of Fine Arts (1917) and the Medal of Honor at the National Exhibition in Madrid (1930), a prize he had been pursuing for years. Although he focused his production in Catalonia and the Balearic Islands, his work transcended borders, being exhibited in cities such as Paris, Amsterdam, Washington, New York and Buenos Aires. Today, his legacy can be found in some of the most prestigious collections in Spain and the world, with works in the Museo Nacional de Arte de Cataluña (MNAC), the Museo del Prado, the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza and the Museo Reina Sofía, among others. His ability to transform landscape into a sensory experience makes him an essential figure in modern Spanish painting.