1873 -1940 · Barcelona, Mallorca, Torrent de Pareis, Reus and Camp de Tarragona

Incandescent colors, free material and immersion in nature make Joaquim Mir a radical voice in the Catalan landscape.

Joaquim Mir was born in Barcelona in 1873. Trained at the Llotja School, in the 1890s he joined the Colla del Safrà, a group of young artists attracted by the outdoors, the outskirts of Barcelona and a bolder color. Mir devotes himself almost entirely to the landscape. Between 1900 and 1904, his stay in Mallorca became decisive. He searches for sites that are still preserved, isolates himself in the mountains and paints torrents, cliffs, caves and vegetation with a chromatic intensity that goes beyond simple observation. The Torrent de Pareis belongs to this universe. The mineral walls are no longer described by traditional design: mauves, yellows, greens, blues and whites fragment the light until transforming the ravine into an inner experience. Mir wants to restore what the place causes as much as what it shows. In April 1904, while working near the Torrent de Pareis, he fell into the ravine. The accident was followed by a serious nervous breakdown and a two-year stay at the Pere Mata Institute in Reus. His painting then resumed in the Tarragona Camp and then in other Catalan regions. The touch remains free, but the compositions sometimes gain stability. Mir then created large decorations, notably for Casa Trinxet, as well as drawings and stained glass projects. Died in Barcelona in 1940, he left a work that escaped simple labels: close from modernism and post-impressionism, she above all invents her own language where color becomes the substance of the landscape. The "Joaquim Mir" selection notably compares Le Torrent de Pareis. His reading favors figures.

Mir does not put color on the landscape: he lets the rock, water and light dissolve into color until the place becomes a pure sensation.