Joaquim Mir Trinxet (1873 - 1940) - Paisaje

Signed at the bottom "J.Mir"

The state of the work is good

The drawing is well framed

Drawing dimensions: 14 x 16 cm.

Frame dimensions: 31 x 33 cm.

Good condition

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Artist’s Biography:

Joaquím Mir i Trinxet was born in Barcelona in 1873. In his youth he worked in his father’s jewelry and notions shop. He began studies in mercantile appraisal and later abandoned them to devote himself to painting.

Around 1889 he began artistic studies at the private academy of Luis Graner, alongside Nonell, and later enrolled in the Official School of Fine Arts in Barcelona.

Most of his training was self-taught, showing a great fondness for painting and drawing the landscapes and people from the outskirts of Barcelona alongside other artists such as Joaquim Sunyer, Isidre Nonell, Ricard Canals or Ramón Pichot. All of them were interested in sunlit themes and were nicknamed the "Colla del Zafra" (Saffron Group), for the predominant ochre color in their scenes.

His themes at this time are suburban or reflect the hard life in the countryside, such as L´hort del rector or El huerto y la ermita.

The most notable example is La catedral dels pobres, where he realistically depicts a group of beggars at the door of Gaudí’s Sagrada Família. The foreground, where the beggars’ family sits, is deeply tremendista. The shadow in which they stand contrasts dramatically with the light and clarity of the works.

At the end of the century he became a regular at Els Quatre Gats, a venue where the modernists gathered. Shortly after he travels to Mallorca in the company of Santiago Rusiñol.

During his stay on the island he develops an absolutely personal language. He discovers the light and color of the Mediterranean landscapes, more rugged and natural than the Catalan, and from then on his painting abandons the social critique of an expressionist bent and the luminous landscape painting of his early works. The central axis of his activity would become the landscape. His palette is enriched with a bold and varied chromaticism, arranged spontaneously and showing the exaltation of an overflowing, almost unreal nature.

The Rock of the Pond is an example of that exaltation. His style is vigorous and powerful. He uses ochre, blue and emerald tones to paint the rugged rocks reflected in the transparent waters, creating a play of lights in which these colors merge with the blues of the sea.

He stayed three years in Mallorca in the small village of Sa Calobra and due to a serious fall from a cliff that could have cost him his life, he was admitted to a mental clinic in Reus for severe nervous disorders.

Having recovered from his illness, in 1907 he settled with his parents in Tarragona and the towns of L'Aleixar and Maspujols inspire many of his landscapes.

Pueblo escalonado is one of the artist’s best paintings. It captures the atmosphere of the landscape by applying vibrant and bold color patches with harmonious chromatic gradations.

Since 1921, after getting married, he resided in Vilanova i la Geltrú and he died in Barcelona in 1940.

Joaquín Mir was the leading exponent of the second generation of Catalan Modernist painters. He renewed the landscape genre at the end of the 19th century with a personal, highly colorful and expressive style.