Joaquim Mir

JOAQUIM MIR TRINXET (Barcelona, 1873 - 1940).
Untitled.
Oil on canvas. Relined.
Signed in the lower right corner.
Measurements: 51 x 61 cm; 76 x 86 cm (frame).

In this work Mir demonstrates his absolute mastery of the technique and the capture of the landscape, in an image in which he manages to synthesize the naturalistic expression, the personal expression and the pictorial order. We see an urban view worked by means of a sensitive brushstroke, which explores the space and gives it form 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. He soon felt uncomfortable with the official teaching, anchored in a conception of realist painting, so in 1893 he founded together with other colleagues (Nonell, Canals, Pichot, Vallmitjana and Gual) the "Colla del Safrà", to investigate together 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 that give us a clear idea of the ideals of the group: "La huerta del rector" and "El vendedor de naranjas". Also, since 1897 he frequented the artistic environment of "Els Quatre Gats", where all the artists who knew the European avant-garde met, which helped him to mature in the compositional study of landscapes with figures in different planes of depth. From this period are "Slopes of Montjuic" (1897) and "The Cathedral of the Poor" (1898), the two masterpieces of his youth. In 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, specifically by Sa Calobra, 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. After a period of illness that forced him to move to Reus, in 1907 he won the first medal at the International Exhibition of Fine Arts in Barcelona. Since then, settled in Camp de Tarragona, he would not move from the landscape genre, but now the surrounding villages would be the protagonists of his painting. Already consolidated as an outstanding figure of the Catalan panorama, he acquired the definitive national recognition in 1917, when he was awarded the National Prize of Fine Arts. Four years later he married and settled permanently in Vilanova i la Geltrú. His successes followed one after the other, and 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 foremost representative of landscape painting.