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Farm

Joan (Joan) Miro • Painting, 1922, 132×147 cm
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About the artwork
This artwork was added since it is referred to in the materials below
Art form: Painting
Subject and objects: Landscape
Technique: Oil
Materials: Canvas
Date of creation: 1922
Size: 132×147 cm
Artwork in collection: - Vlad Maslov
Artwork in selections: 20 selections

Description of the artwork «Farm»

Miro's father was a jeweler and watchmaker. And when Joan declared his desire to become an artist, his father did not resist, but still, being a serious person, he insisted on getting a real education. The boy was 14 years old when he entered the School of Industrial and Fine Arts in Barcelona, and at the same time (for reliability) at the Business School. And to meet the expectations of Miro Sr., he also found a job. Work that I could not stand. Trying to be in time everywhere and fulfill his father’s requirements, Joan developed to a nervous breakdown, and weakened, he also caught typhoid fever. Excitedly worried parents cancel all ultimatums and buy a farm in the town of Mont Roch del Camp on the sea coast, among the red rocks, where Joan has to recover, recover and have a rest. This place was for Miro salvation - now he could finally only write.

For many years in a row he will spend the summer in Mont Roch. And the first important picture, which will summarize all his youthful searches, will be Farm. Miro takes a canvas of almost 140 by 150 cm in size - and works for 9 months daily, meticulously filling it with all the important attributes of farming in Mont Roch: animals, plants, agricultural tools and buildings. For almost every element, he carefully devotes his own space, as if inventorying memories or composing a collection. "Farm" was the result of my entire village life. I wanted to fit into the canvas everything that was dear to me in these places: from a huge tree to a tiny snail ”- said Miro.

In order not to miss anything, so that nothing is lost, so that everything gets enough attention, Miro raises the background of the landscape, as children do in their drawings. He, like children, is important not the photographic accuracy of the landscape as a whole, but the value of every detail. Here is the staircase - and this is how it is assembled from wooden planks, here are the stones - each individually, they can be counted. Footprints on the path, masonry and sprouted grass through the cracks. Miro claimed that he had not stepped back from reality by a single step and allowed himself only one liberty - he removed the wall from the chicken coop so that one could also see what was going on inside.

Miró finished his painting in Paris, where he went in search of real art life, like-minded people, in the hope of getting to know Picasso and other important figures of the avant-garde art hangout. And in the hope of exhibitions and buyers, of course. Before the paint on the surface of the canvas had time to dry, they bought the “Farm” from Miro. Her first buyer was Ernest Hemingway. The picture was in his personal collection until the death of the writer - and he repeatedly said that he would never part with it for any money.

Author: Anna Sidelnikova
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