Joaquim Mir

JOAQUIM MIR TRINXET (Barcelona, 1873 - 1940).
"Landscape with houses".
Oil on hardboard.
Signed in the lower left corner.
Measurements: 34 x 40 cm; 59,5 x 67 cm (frame).

This landscape of Joaquim Mir presents in the foreground a flowery field where the white, lilac and pink flowers appear as pure spots of color, free of drawing, vibrant and almost abstract. It is a pulsating surface, where the brushstroke, fast, spontaneous and intuitive, builds a luminous tapestry that seems to move with the air. Behind this floral burst, a sown field opens up, and in the background, the first houses of a village are insinuated, naturally integrated into the vibrant atmosphere of the landscape. These constructions function as a visual anchor that balances the composition and places the scene within a recognizable rural environment.

The treatment of color and light is fully characteristic of Mir: the contrasting and loose brushstroke, with great gestural freedom, turns nature into a luminous event rather than a simple sight. The artist does not seek topographic fidelity, but the sensory intensity of the instant, giving this landscape a symphonic quality, typical of his period of plenitude within Catalan post-impressionism.

Joaquim Mir studied at the School of Fine Arts of San Jordi in Barcelona and in the workshop of the painter Luis Graner. Soon he felt uncomfortable with the official teaching, anchored in a conception of realist painting, so in 1893 he founded with other colleagues the "Colla del Safrà", to investigate in common in the pictorial initiatives of the end of the century. In 1896 they even participated as a group in the III Exhibition of Fine Arts and Artistic Industries, to which Mir presented two works: "La huerta del rector" and "El vendedor de naranjas". Also, since 1897 he frequented the artistic environment of "Els Quatre Gats", which helped him to mature in the compositional study of landscapes with figures in different planes of depth. During these years he took part in the Fine Arts Exhibitions of Barcelona, in their editions of 1894, 1896 and 1898. Winner of a second medal at the Madrid Exhibition of 1899, that same year he moved to the capital in order to compete for a scholarship in Rome. When he was unsuccessful, he went with Santiago Rusiñol to Mallorca, on a trip that would be a definitive turning point in his career. Mir was dazzled by the Mallorcan landscape, which was an inexhaustible source of inspiration for him. From then on, the artist deployed a whole combination of impossible colors, the result of his personal interpretation of the majestic nature of the island. The brushstrokes became longer and became stains that almost made objects and spatial references disappear. In 1901 he exhibited the fruit of this first Mallorcan stage individually at the Sala Parés in Barcelona, and again obtained a second medal at the National Exhibition. In 1907 he obtains the first medal at the International Exhibition of Fine Arts in Barcelona. Since then, installed in Camp de Tarragona, he will not move from the landscape genre, but now the surrounding villages will be the protagonists of his painting. In 1917, when he was awarded the National Prize of Fine Arts, he received the definitive national recognition. In 1929 he won the first medal at the International Exhibition in Barcelona. The following year he won the medal of honor at the National Exhibition in Madrid, an award he had been pursuing since 1922. Although he was mainly a native painter, he had solo and group exhibitions in Washington, Paris, Pittsburg, New York, Philadelphia, Amsterdam, Buenos Aires and Venice. Mir is today considered the most outstanding representative of Spanish post-impressionist landscape painting. His work is preserved in the National Art Museum of Catalonia, the Prado Museum, the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum and the Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid, among many others.