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As well as the recognisable landscape of undulating mountains and the unmistakable focal point of the village church, the word "Aleixar", the name of a small town in Tarragona, can be made out in this oil painting underneath the present signature (painted over another barely legible signature). Both features-the word designating the place and the duplicate signature-are common in Mir's works. In this case, however, they are characterised by a greater realism that opens up a whole new perspective in his art. This realism, which is natural in a land prone to placid contemplation rather than to grandiloquence or rapture, prefers to capture light in the Impressionist style, as revealed by this panoramic view of L'Aleixar.

Mir began his artistic career with Lluís Graner, whose influence can be traced in his early works alongside that of the School of Olot. His brief period at Barcelona's legendary Llotja Art School brought him into contact with a group of future painters-Isidre Nonell, Joaquim Sunyer, Ricard Canals and Ramon Pichot, among others-with whom he formed La Colla del Safrà (The Saffron Group), so called because of the abundance of cadmium yellows and ochres in their canvases and characterised by their interest in outskirts of towns as subject matters of their paintings. From 1899 to 1904 Mir lived in Majorca, where he frequented the painters Santiago Rusiñol and William Degouve. As a result of a serious fall from some rocks he was taken to the psychiatric hospital in Reus, and two years later he settled in L'Aleixar in the province of Tarragona. Mir arrived at abstraction ahead of the Parisian avant-garde theories, although from 1914 to 1921 he chose a form of Realism that focused on capturing the light of the moment. By 1925 the artistic prestige and economic value of his works had grown considerably, making him a highly successful artist. [Francesc Miralles]

Selected bibliography

• Joaquim Mir : Mallorca y otros paisajes [Cat. exp.]. Girona, Fundació Caixa, 2004. pp. 88-89.
• Joaquim Mir : Mallorca i altres paisatges [Cat. exp.]. Girona, Fundació Caixa, 2004. pp. 88-89.
• Colección Urresti = Urresti Bilduma [Cat. exp.]. Bilbao, Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2006. p. 4.
• De Goya a Gauguin : el siglo XIX en el Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao [Cat. exp.]. Salamanca, Caja Duero, 2006. pp. 258-259.
• Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao : guía. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2006. p. 138.
• Musée des Beaux Arts de Bilbao : guide. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2006. p. 138.
• Bilbao Fine Arts Museum : guide. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2006. p. 138.
• De Goya a Gauguin : el siglo XIX en el Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao [Cat. exp.]. Valencia, Caja Duero, 2006. pp. 258-259.
• De Goya a Gauguin : el siglo XIX en el Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao [Cat. exp.]. Sevilla, Museo de Bellas Artes, 2007. pp. 258-259.
• Joaquim Mir : antológica, 1873-1940 [Cat. exp.]. Barcelona, Fundación ”la Caixa”, 2008. pp. 120-121, 169.
• De Goya a Gauguin : el siglo XIX en el Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao [Cat. exp.]. Bilbao, Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2008. pp. 535-537, n° cat. 120
• Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao : guía. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2011. p. 138, n° cat. 95.
• El Modernismo : de Sorolla à Picasso, 1880-1918 [Cat. exp.]. Laussane, Fondation de l'Hermitage, 2011. pp. 94, 254, n° cat. 24.
• Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa : gida. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2012. p. 138, n° cat. 95.
• Musée des Beaux Arts de Bilbao : guide. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2014. p. 138.
• Bilbao Fine Arts Museum : guide. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2014. p. 138.