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Overview

Miró moved from Barcelona to Paris in 1920, determined to participate in the artistic vanguard of the French capital. Nevertheless, he remained deeply attached to his native Catalonia, and returned each summer to his family's farm in the village of Montroig. In 1921, he determined to make a painting of this farm, a painting that he came to regard as one of the key works in his career.

The Farm represents a brilliant amalgamation of an intense, even primitive realism with the formal vocabulary of cubism. The painting is a compendium of separate details, each carefully observed and precisely described. This detailed realism, however, is matched by a tendency to simplify forms into abstract, geometric shapes. Moreover, space in The Farm is defined by a ground plane that tilts sharply upward, while individual forms are similarly tilted, so that they sit silhouetted, parallel to the picture plane.

By the mid-1920s, Miró had abandoned the realist manner of The Farm and had created a surrealist style of automatism and abstraction. Elements from The Farm continued to appear in his work, however, and the intensity of vision found in this painting remained a standard for all of his later art.

Inscription

lower left: Miro. / 1921-22.

Provenance

The artist; on consignment 1 June 1922 to possibly spring 1924 to (Léonce Rosenberg, Galerie L'Effort Moderne, Paris); possibly on consignment to (Jacques Viot, Galerie Pierre, Paris); possibly Evan Shipman, Paris, by June 1925; Hadley [1891-1979] and Ernest [1899-1961] Hemingway, Paris, by 9 November 1925;[1] Hadley Richardson Hemingway [later Mrs. Paul Scott Mowrer], Paris and Chicago, from c. October-November 1926;[2] Ernest Hemingway's fourth wife, Mary Welsh Hemingway [1908-1986], New York;[3] bequest 1987 to NGA.

Exhibition History

1922
Salon d'Automne, Paris, 1922, no. 1754.
1923
Exhibition of paintings and drawings by Joan Miró and Francesc Domingo, Au Caméléon, Paris, May 1923.
1923
One-day exhibition, Le Jockey (café in Montparnasse), Paris, 1923 (according to the artist, quoted in Joan Miró, Ceci est la couleur de mes rêves: entretiens avec Georges Raillard, Paris, 1977: 53).
1923
One-day group exhibition on the occasion of A. Schneeberger's lecture "The Evolution of Catalan Poetry," Au Caméléon, Paris, 9 April 1923.
1925
Exposition Joan Miró, Galerie Pierre, Paris, 1925, no. 1.
1934
A Century of Progress Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture, Art Institute of Chicago, 1934, no. 355.
1935
Joan Miró, 1933-1934: Paintings, Tempera, Pastels, Pierre Matisse Gallery, New York, 1935, no. 1.
1948
Picasso Gris Miro. The Spanish Masters of Twentieth Century Painting, San Francisco Museum of Art; Portland Art Museum, 1948.
1959
Joan Miró, Museum of Modern Art, New York; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1959, unnumbered catalogue, repro. (shown only in New York).
1960
Loan to display with permanent collection, Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1960-1962.
1964
Joan Miró, Tate Gallery, London; Kunsthaus, Zurich, 1964, no. 28, repro.
1978
Aspects of Twentieth-Century Art, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1978-1979, no. 77, repro. (shown May-September 1978).
1980
Miró: Selected Paintings, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.; Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, 1980, no. 9, repro. (shown only in Washington).
1983
Joan Miró: anys 20: mutacio de la realitat: 90e aniversari de Joan Miro [Joan Miró: Años 20, Mutación de la realidad, 90o Aniversario de Joan Miró], Fundacio Joan Miró, Barcelona; Museo Español de Arte Contemporáneo, Madrid, 1983, not in Barcelona catalogue, repro. in Madrid catalogue.
1986
Joan Miró: A Retrospective, Kunsthaus Zurich; Kunsthalle Düsseldorf; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, 1986-1987, no. 20 (German catalogue), no. 14 (English catalogue), repro.
1987
Cinco Siglos de Arte Español: El Siglo de Picasso, Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris; Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, 1987-1988, no. 22 (French catalogue), no. 20 (Spanish catalogue), repro.
1990
Jean Miró: Rétrospective de l'oeuvre paint, Fondation Maeght, Saint-Paul-de Vence, France, 1990, no. 12, repro.
1993
Joan Miró: 1893-1993 and Joan Miró, Fundacio Joan Miró, Barcelona; Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1993-1994, no. 47 (Spanish catalogue), no. 22 (English catalogue), repro.
1998
Joan Miró, Moderna Museet, Stockholm; Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebaek, Denmark, 1998-1999, no. 6, repro.
2001
Paris-Barcelone, de Gaudi à Miró, Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris; Museu Picasso, Barcelona, 2001-2002, unnumbered catalogue, repro. (French catalogue), unnumbered catalogue, fig. 4 (Spanish catalogue).
2002
Joan Miró. Snail Woman Flower Star, Stiftung museum kunst palast, Düsseldorf, 2002, no. 5, repro.
2004
Joan Miró 1917-1934: La Naissance du Monde [Joan Miró 1917-1934: The Birth of the World], Musée national d'art moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, 2004, no. 19, repro.
2006
Barcelona & Modernity: Picasso, Gaudi, Miró, Dalí, The Cleveland Museum of Art; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2006-2007, no. 7.25, fig. 6.
2011
Joan Miró: The Ladder of Escape, Tate, London; Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 2011-2012, no. 17, repro.
2014
Miró: From Earth to Sky, Albertina, Vienna, 2014-2015, unnumbered catalogue, repro.
2015
Joan Miro: Wandbilder / Weltenbilder, Kunsthaus Zürich; Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt, 2015-2016, no. 1, repro.
2018
Miró, The Colour of My Dreams, Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris, 2018-2019.

Bibliography

1989
Kramer, Hilton. "Modern Art at the National Gallery." The New Criterion 7, no. 8 (April 1989): 3.
1991
Kopper, Philip. America's National Gallery of Art: A Gift to the Nation. New York, 1991: 314, color repro.
1992
National Gallery of Art, Washington. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 257, repro.
1992
Robert Hughes. Barcelona. New York, 1992: 22-23; 24-25, 27, 52.
1993
Mink, Janis. Joan Miró, 1893-1983. Cologne, 1993, 30-31, repro. 30.
1997
Joan Miró: Campesino Catalán con Guitarra, 1924. Exh. cat. Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, 1997-1998: 41, no. 17, repro.
1999
Dupin, Jacques and Ariane Lelong-Mainaud. Joan Miro. Catalogue raisonné. Paintings. 6 vols. Paris, 1999-2006:I:74-75, repro.
2001
Southgate, M. Therese. The Art of JAMA II: Covers and Essays from The Journal of the American Medical Association. Chicago, 2001: 30-31, color repro.
2004
Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: 422-423, no. 354, color repro.
2008
Miró: Earth. Exh. cat. Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, 2008: 38-40, fig. 6.
2011
Whitfield, Sarah. "Exhibitions: Joan Miró (London, Barcelona and Washington)." The Burlington Magazine 53, no. 1301 (August 2011): cover, 549, color fig. 21.
2012
Bryant, Eric. "Datebook, Washington DC: Veiled Politics." Art + Auction 35, no. 9 (May 2012): 48, color repro.
2012
Conoway, James. "Getting the Picture." Washingtonian 47, no. 8 (May 2012): 80-83, color repro.
2012
Johnson, Ken. "Filtering Miro's Work Through a Political Sieve." New York Times 161, no. 52,855 (August 3, 2012): C26, color repro.
2012
Wilkin, Karen. "Joan Miró in Washington." The New Criterion 30, no. 10 (June 2012): 44.
2015
Fernández de Castro, Alex. La masía, un Miró para Mrs. Hemingway. València, 2015.

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