Joaquim Mir

JOAQUIM MIR TRINXET (Barcelona, 1873 - 1940).
"View of Sant Pere de Ribes from the castle".
Oil on canvas.
Signed in the lower right corner.
Attached certificate of authenticity issued by Marçal Barrachina.
Measurements: 51 x 69 cm; 78 x 96 cm (frame).

"I only want my works to gladden the heart and flood the eyes and soul with light". Thus Mir summarized in 1928 his manifesto as a painter, totally identifiable in the work on tender. Color and light meant everything to the Barcelona painter, and with them he constructed a personal language with which he created a surprisingly modern work, always based on a new vision of nature. In this luminous work Mir demonstrates his absolute mastery of the technique and the capture of the landscape, in an image immortalized from the castle of Sant Pere de Ribes (a town bordering Vilanova i la Geltrú where the painter lived) in which he manages to synthesize the naturalistic representation, the personal expression and the pictorial order. We see a sensitive brushstroke, which explores the space and gives it shape and entity, creating volumes, lights and shadows, defining an atmosphere captured with great sensitivity. Through a purely personal language, Mir synthesizes the basic elements of representation and expressiveness of painting, as can be seen in the intensity of his colors or in the rigor of his compositional structure.

Joaquín Mir studied at the Escuela de Bellas Artes de San Jordi in Barcelona and in the workshop of the painter Luis Graner. His style was also influenced by the School of Olot, his father's hometown. In 1893 he formed the "Colla del Safrà" together with artists such as Isidro Nonell, Ricard Canals or Ramón Pichot, and in the last years of the century he was associated with the artistic environment of "Els Quatre Gats". He completed his training in 1895, when he spent a season in Madrid copying works by Velázquez. He took part in the National Exhibitions of Fine Arts, being awarded the second medal in 1899 and 1901, and an honorary medal in 1930. He was also awarded the first medal at the International Exhibitions of Barcelona in 1907 and 1929. He achieved definitive recognition at the national level in 1917, when he was awarded the National Prize of Fine Arts. 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.