JOAQUIM MIR TRINXET (Barcelona, 1873 - 1940). "Landscape of Sant Miquel d'Olebol", 1929. Oil on canvas. Signed, located and dated on the back. Measurements: 50.5 x 60.5 cm; 70 x 81 cm (frame). Joaquim Mir captured, with great pulse and sensitivity, the energy that emanates from the Catalan landscape. In this painting, the orography is stained like multicoloured tapestries that convey the perfect integration between the water running in the streams and the wild stretches of greenery and sienna. Here he demonstrates absolute mastery of technique, using rapid touches alternating with long brushstrokes, building up depth through superimposed layers, with inappreciable shifts, so that the result is natural. The white farmhouses are also integrated into the landscape, composing an enveloping and intoxicating whole. Joaquín Mir studied at the San Jordi School of Fine Arts in Barcelona and in the studio of the painter Luis Graner. His style was also influenced by the School of Olot, his father's home town. In 1893 he formed the "Colla del Safrà" together with artists such as Isidro Nonell, Ricard Canals and Ramon 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 some time in Madrid copying works by Velázquez. During these years he took part in the Fine Arts Exhibitions in Barcelona in 1894, 1896 and 1898. Winner of a second medal at the Madrid Exhibition of 1899, that same year he moved to the capital with the aim of applying for a scholarship in Rome. When he was unsuccessful, he went with Santiago Rusiñol to Mallorca, a trip that was to be a definitive turning point in his career. Mir was dazzled by the Mallorcan landscape, particularly that of Sa Calobra, which was an inexhaustible source of inspiration for him. In 1901 he held a solo exhibition of the fruit of this first Mallorcan period at the Sala Parés in Barcelona, and once again won 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. Already established as a leading figure on the Catalan scene, he gained definitive national recognition in 1917, when he was awarded the National Prize for 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 honour at the National Exhibition in Madrid, a prize he had been after since 1922. Although he was mainly a native painter, he held solo and group exhibitions in Washington, Paris, Pittsburgh, New York, Philadelphia, Amsterdam, Buenos Aires and Venice. Mir is today considered the foremost representative of Spanish Post-Impressionist landscape painting. His work can be found in the Museo Nacional de Arte de Cataluña, the Museo del Prado, the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza and the Museo Reina Sofía in Madrid, among many others.