L´Hort dels Escolanets. Montserrat

This is a work representative of the painter’s full biological maturity. The luminous realism, translated through a lively and fluid mastery of the technique of oil painting, has been fully consolidated in Mir. This is a Mir already distanced from symbolist resonances and personal experiments into the chromatic decomposition of reality.

This oil work belongs to the painter’s second painting spell at Montserrat (1931), which was very different from the first (1908). Mir was no longer the ingenuous visionary brimming over with new ideas on painting, but rather the peaceful father of a family who had found a dignified and restful path in life that combined professionalism and skill. At Montserrat, Mir, who was already famous, was pampered by the Benedictine community. In fact, precisely at the spot shown in this picture, where he used to paint outdoors, they installed an awning to shelter him from the strong sun.