When Joan Miró was seventeen, he first visited his parents’ new summer house, near the Mediterranean Sea. It was a farm in Montroig, a village about sixty miles from Barcelona, Spain. His love of the countryside in Montroig led to his lifelong custom of spending his summers there.

The clay-colored, parched, and rocky-looking soil, the dryness of the vegetation on the barn, and the yellow haze that seems to rise on the horizon indicate the region’s hot and arid climate. Water was clearly at a premium. Without the benefits of a public water supply, the farm used both a cistern—seen between the barns—to collect precious rain water for washing and watering—and a well, located behind the cistern, to supply drinking water. Miró said of The Farm:

The painting was absolutely realistic. Everything that’s in the painting was actually there. I didn’t invent anything. I only eliminated the fencing on the front of the chicken coop because it kept you from seeing the animals.

Miró says that the painting is a realistic depiction. However, it seems to fluctuate between a realistic recording of the scene and more dreamlike imagery. The landscape, for instance, pulsates with hot, clear sunshine, but the blazing light casts no shadows. In the midday sky, the sun is represented by a disk that, oddly, is silvery gray—the color of the moon. A cart totters on a single wheel. Moreover, we know the barn at Montroig was well kept, not crumbling as it seems to be here.

Discussion Questions:

• BEFORE showing your students The Farm, ask: Who has been to a farm, or what do you think a farm looks like? THEN: Is the painting similar to or different from how you thought a farm would look? In what ways?
• What natural resources are depicted on the farm? Did you notice water? Why is water necessary? Where does this resource come from? (From below the earth, from rivers and lakes, and from precipitation.) Find the well and the open cistern. How would both of these sources be used? (Well water for drinking, collected water for washing, watering plants, etc.) What are some ways you can conserve water?
• What kinds of activities do you see on the farm?
• On the map, find Montroig, Spain, where Joan Miró spent summers on his parents’ farm. What clues does Miró give about Montroig’s climate in the summer? (Bright light, no clouds, dry soil indicate a warm temperate climate; hot summers with little rain.)