Hillsides of Montjuïc

An important oil painting from Mir’s youthful period, still in a style characteristic of the Colla del Safrá (a group of young artists). It can be dated from approximately 1896 because of its similitude of style and theme with Font de Montjuïc (Montjuïc Fountain) of that year. The facture is realistic and luminous, in the local tradition of Mas i Fontdevila. Its composition, of landscape and figures, one of which is in the foreground, relates it closely to La catedral dels pobres (The Cathedral of the Poor) of 1898, the young Mir’s masterpiece, although it lacks the latter’s “social” content.