Hemingway's favorite painting - Into The Farm by Joan Miró

“I won’t change The Farm for any painting in the world” — Ernest Hemingway.

The military conflicts often served as a source of inspiration for the art movements. Usually, a new movement was born in a protest. Artists wanted to share their vision about the ongoing situation in the world.

Surrealism was no different.

It saw its birth after World War I and paved the way for dozens of well-known artists, such as Salvador Dali, Max Ernst, Yves Tanguy, Marcel Duchamp, and others. The Barcelona-born Spanish-Catalan painter Joan Miró i Ferrà was amongst the best-known names of Surrealism.

The Farm carries a spectrum of personal experiences of the Spanish-Catalan artist. It symbolically embodied Miró’s path to the creation of this artwork, because, in his early years, the priority was not the art but education. His strict father valued education highly, and though he supported his son’s artistic ambitions, Miro was enrolled in the art and business schools. The young artist also found a job to fulfill all the requirements of his father. However, he hated his job, and later overload led Miró to various health issues, including Typhoid fever.

The Farm (1922) by Joan Miró. Oil on canvas, 123.8 cm × 141.3 cm.

Seeing their son’s health deteriorating, Miró’s parents decided to step away from all the demands and bought a small farm in the coastal Catalan town Mont-roig del Camp.

The scenery of this area had plenty to offer for the creative mind of the young artist. It became a safe haven for Miró — a place where he could regain his health and finally do what he loves the most, to paint.

“The Farm became the end result of my life in the countryside. I wanted to depict in this painting everything that was dear to me. From the large tree to the smallest snail” — Joan Miró.

The Spanish-Catalan artist spent many summers in Mont-roig del Camp, and in 1921, he started his work on The Farm. For the next nine months, the creative process was fully dedicated to this painting. It became his main passion and obsession. He spent several hours daily recreating all the smallest details he noticed around the farm — animals, plants, buildings, and tools. Every slightest detail deserved to be depicted, the painter wanted to create a perfect composition.

The idea of Surrealism was often linked with anarchism — lack of hierarchy. Surrealism paintings carried this chaotic idea. The Farm does not try to represent a realistic depiction of the masia. Indeed, it features a large variety of small details, but some parts of this painting look like those were painted by a child. Miró takes away the wall from the henhouse so the viewer could see what is hidden inside.

The Spanish-Catalan artist started work on this painting in Mont-roig del Camp, but the finishing touches were put in Paris. The French capital was always attracting the leading creative minds of Europe, and Miró traveled to Paris in pursuit of meeting the leading artists of his era. The bohemian atmosphere was like a drug for the young painter, and a chance to meet influential figures, like Pablo Picasso, only added the desire to create an iconic work.

The Farm became a spiritual journey for Miro. It was a love-hate situation. The painter had several versions of this work, and all of them were destroyed during the process. The final version was created through sufferings, adding a true perfectionist mindset. It was important to portray the countryside of his beloved Catalonia in a remarkable, memorable way, to create an immortal piece of art. In all fairness, Miró did achieve this.

After this artwork was finished, it almost instantly became the favorite painting of the famous American writer Ernest Hemingway. He bought it for 5,000 francs and admired the way Miró depicted his cozy farm.

The painter was also content that Hemingway was the one who purchased his artwork. “I am always content, tu sais, that you have The Farm,” said Miró to the owner of his eventually iconic work.

The Farm remains an important piece in the history of Catalan art and the identity of the region itself. Miró depicted in this work everything that made him the man the world remembers as one of Surrealism’s finest masters. When the creative process involves deep personal feelings and experiences, a gifted artist might convert those into something magnificent. Joan Miró i Ferrà only proves this theory to be right.

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