With great attention to detail and poetic imagination, Miró painted every tiny leaf, twig, and root of the plants in the foreground, while the mountains in the distance appear wrapped in a transparent fold and mauve light. The artist spent his summers working at his family's farm near Montroig, where he recorded his love for the village and its surroundings in nearly forty landscapes painted between 1914 and 1922.
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Inscription: Signed and dated (lower left): Miró./ 1919
[Galerie Pierre, Paris, until 1937; sold on June 24, 1937, for $850, to P. Matisse]; [Pierre Matisse Gallery, New York, 1937–49; stock no. 631; sold on December 19, 1949, for $4,250, to Block]; Mr. and Mrs. Leigh B. Block, Chicago and Santa Barbara (1949–her d. 1981); Leigh B. Block, Chicago and Santa Barbara (1981–at least 1986; sold to Thaw and Acquavella); [E. V. Thaw & Co., Inc. and Acquavella Galleries, New York, until 1987; sold to Gelman]; Natasha Gelman, Mexico City and New York (1987–d. 1998; her bequest to MMA)
Paris. Galerie La Licorne. "Exposition de peintures et dessins de Joan Miró," April 29–May 14, 1921, no. 24 (as "Catalogne. Arbres et montagnes à Tarragone").
New York. Pierre Matisse Gallery. "Joan Miró: Early Paintings, 1918–1925," March 12–31, 1940, no. 4 (as "Paysage aux Oliviers").
Museum of Modern Art, New York. "Joan Miró," November 18, 1941–January 11, 1942, unnumbered cat. (p. 17; as "Landscape with Olive Trees," lent by the Pierre Matisse Gallery).
San Francisco Museum of Art. "Picasso, Gris, Miró: The Spanish Masters of Twentieth Century Painting," September 14–October 17, 1948, no. 42 (as "Landscape with Olive Trees," lent by Pierre Matisse Gallery, New York).
Portland, Ore. Portland Art Museum. "Picasso, Gris, Miró: The Spanish Masters of Twentieth Century Painting," October 26–November 28, 1948, no. 42.
New York. Pierre Matisse Gallery. "Selections," November 8–26, 1949, no. 8 (as "The Olive Grove").
Minneapolis Institute of Arts. "Van Gogh and Modern Painting," October 6–November 4, 1951, no catalogue (lent by Mr. and Mrs. Leigh B. Block, Chicago).
New York. Pierre Matisse Gallery. "The Early Paintings of Joan Miró," November 20–December 15, 1951, no. 12 (as "The Olive Grove [Montroig]," lent by Mr. and Mrs. Leigh Block).
Museum of Modern Art, New York. "Joan Miró," March 18–May 10, 1959, brochure no. 12 (as "The Olive Grove," lent by Mr. and Mrs. Leigh B. Block, Chicago).
Los Angeles County Museum. "Joan Miró," June 10–July 21, 1959, brochure no. 11.
Arts Club of Chicago. "Joan Miró: Works from Chicago Collections," February 22–March 25, 1961, no. 6 (as "The Olive Grove," lent by Mr. and Mrs. Leigh B. Block).
Paris. Musée National d'Art Moderne. "Joan Miró," June–November 1962, no. 13 (as "Montroig, vignes et oliviers," lent by M. et Mme Leigh B. Block, Chicago).
London. Tate Gallery. "Joan Miró," August 27–October 11, 1964, no. 24 (as "Vines and Olive Trees, Montroig," lent by Mr. and Mrs. Leigh B. Block, Chicago).
Kunsthaus Zürich. "Joan Miró," October 31–December 6, 1964, no. 24.
Washington, D.C. National Gallery of Art. "100 European Paintings & Drawings from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Leigh B. Block," May 4–June 11, 1967, no. 62 (as "Olive Grove, Montroig").
Los Angeles County Museum of Art. "100 European Paintings & Drawings from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Leigh B. Block," September 21–November 2, 1967, no. 62.
Boston. Museum of Fine Arts. "One Hundred European Paintings & Drawings from the Collection of Mr. & Mrs. Leigh B. Block," February 2–April 14, 1968, no. 62.
Santa Barbara Museum of Art. "Works by Living Artists from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Leigh B. Block," February 11–April 9, 1978, no. 5 (as "The Olive Grove" or "Vines and Olive Trees, Montroig").
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Twentieth-Century Modern Masters: The Jacques and Natasha Gelman Collection," December 12, 1989–April 1, 1990, unnumbered cat. (p. 157; as "Vines and Olive Trees, Tarragona").
London. Royal Academy of Arts. "Twentieth-Century Modern Masters: The Jacques and Natasha Gelman Collection," April 19–July 15, 1990, unnumbered cat.
Saint-Paul-de-Vence. Fondation Maeght. "Joan Miró: Rétrospective de l'œuvre peint," July 4–October 7, 1990, no. 8 (as "Vignes et oliviers à Tarragone," lent by the Collection Jacques et Natasha Gelman, New York) [joined the exhibition following the close of Exh. London 1990].
Museum of Modern Art, New York. "Joan Miró," October 17, 1993–January 11, 1994, no. 15 (lent by The Jacques and Natasha Gelman Collection).
Martigny. Fondation Pierre Gianadda. "De Matisse à Picasso: Collection Jacques et Natasha Gelman," June 18–November 1, 1994, unnumbered cat. (p. 181).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Barcelona and Modernity: Gaudí to Dalí," March 7–June 3, 2007, not in catalogue.
Joan Miró. Letter to Enric C. Ricart. July 9, 1919 [published in Ref. Ainaud de Lasarte 2009, pp. 125–27, letter no. 54; excerpts published in English transl. in Ref. Rowell 1986, pp. 60–62], relates that he is working on this picture in the afternoons, alternating with "Montroig, the Church and the Village" (private collection; DL 1999, no. 66) in the mornings, noting that he can "work comfortably on this canvas from my room (terrific convenience)".
Joan Miró. Letters to Josep F. Ràfols. August 10 and 21, 1919 [published in Ref. Ainaud de Lasarte 2009, pp. 132–33, letter no. 58, pp. 136–37, letter no. 60; excerpts published in English transl. in Ref. Rowell 1986, pp. 62–64], comments that he has been working all summer on this painting and "Montroig, the Church and the Village," both of which "have been changed a thousand times"; notes that this painting began as cubist and evolved into "a kind of 'pointillisme'".
Joan Miró. Letter to Enric C. Ricart. [November 1919] [published in Ref. Ainaud de Lasarte 2009, pp. 154–55, letter no. 71], in Barcelona, relates that he is now finishing the summer landscapes.
"Museum Opens a Twin Show of Dalí and Miró: Complete Survey of Work of Surrealists Given in Modern Art Exhibitions." New York Herald Tribune (November 19, 1941), p. 18.
James Johnson Sweeney. Joan Miró. Exh. cat., Museum of Modern Art. New York, 1941, pp. 15, 19, 22, 80, ill. p. 17.
Pierre Loeb. Voyages à travers la peinture. [Paris], 1946, pp. 82–83, recalls visiting the Miró family farm in Montroig and describes how seeing the mountains in the distance reminded him of this picture and led to the realization that its depicted "étranges montagnes pointues" were in fact based on reality.
J[osep]. F[rancesc]. Ràfols. "Miró antes de 'La Masia'." Anales y boletin de los Museos de Arte de Barcelona 6 (July–December 1948), ill. between pp. 500 and 501.
A[lexandre]. Cirici-Pellicer. Miró y la imaginación. Barcelona, 1949, p. 16, as "Paisaje con un Olivar".
Clement Greenberg. Joan Miró. rev. ed. [1st ed., 1948]. New York, 1950, pp. 15, 129, pl. IV, as "Landscape with Olive Trees" in the text and "Olive Trees" in the caption; locates it in the Pierre Matisse Gallery, New York.
"Van Gogh and Modern Painting." Minneapolis Institute of Arts Bulletin 40 (October 20, 1951), p. 126.
T[homas]. B. H[ess]. in "Reviews and Previews." Art News 50 (January 1952), p. 40, ill.
G[eorges]. Ribemont-Dessaignes in Jacques Prévert and G[eorges]. Ribemont-Dessaignes. Joan Miró. Paris, 1956, pp. 75–76, as "Paysages aux oliviers".
Howard Devree. "Paradox of Miró." New York Times (March 22, 1959), ill. p. X15.
William Rubin. "Miró in Retrospect." Art International 3, nos. 5–6 (1959), p. 36.
James Thrall Soby. Joan Miró. New York, 1959, p. 28, ill. p. 23, calls it "The Olive Grove" and notes that it was probably completed before or soon after Miró arrived in Paris [arrived in Paris probably late February 1920, see Ref. Umland 1993, p. 321 and Ref. Miró, November 1919].
Robert Rosenblum. Cubism and Twentieth-Century Art. New York, 1960, pp. 257–58, 323, pl. 183, as "Landscape with Olive Trees".
Jacques Dupin. Joan Miró: Life and Work. New York, [1962], pp. 92, 94, 139, 494, no. 64, ill. pp. 89 (color), 506, calls it "Vines and Olive Trees, Montroig (The Olive Grove)"; remarks that it "exhibits a certain exasperation with realism".
D[enys]. Chevalier. "Miro." Aujourd'hui: Art et architecture 7 (November 1962), p. 8 [English transl. published in Ref. Rowell 1986, p. 263].
Jacques Lassaigne. Miró. Lausanne, 1963, pp. 27–28, ill. p. 25 (color), as "The Olive Grove".
Cyril Barrett. "London Report." Das Kunstwerk 18 (November 1964), p. 27.
Roland Penrose. Joan Miró. Exh. cat., Tate Gallery. London, 1964, p. 20, no. 24, pl. 4c.
Mario Bucci. Joan Miró. Florence, 1968, p. 20, fig. 11.
Juan Perucho. Joan Miró and Catalonia. New York, [1968], colorpl. 37, as "Vineyards and Olive Groves. Montroig (Tarragona)".
Roland Penrose. Miró. London, 1970, pp. 24, 207, colorpl. 16, calls it "Vines and Olive Trees, Montroig".
Michel Tapié. Joan Miró. Milan, 1970, p. 19, pl. 8, as "Montroig: vigne e oliveti sotto la pioggia" in the collection of Mr. and Mrs. R. [sic] Block.
Rosalind Krauss in Rosalind Krauss and Margit Rowell. Joan Miró: Magnetic Fields. Exh. cat., Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. New York, 1972, p. 16, as "Vines and Olive Trees".
William Rubin. Miró in the Collection of the Museum of Modern Art. New York, 1973, p. 23, fig. 6 (p. 112), as "Vines and Olive Trees".
Gaston Diehl. Miró. New York, 1974, p. 16, as "Vines and Olive Trees in Montroig".
Takahiko Okada. Miró. Tokyo, 1974, unpaginated, colorpl. 3.
Giuseppe Marchiori. "Miró through the Years." Homage to Joan Miró. Ed. G[ualtieri]. di San Lazzaro. (1st ed., Paris, 1972). New York, 1976, p. 22, as "Vines and Olive Trees, Montroig".
Margit Rowell. Joan Mirò: Peinture=poésie. [Paris], 1976, pp. 22–23, 33, 201, ill. (color), as "Montroig: vignes et oliviers".
Katherine Harper Mead. Works by Living Artists from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Leigh B. Block. Exh. cat., Santa Barbara Museum of Art. Santa Barbara, 1978, unpaginated, no. 5, ill.
Alexandre Cirici. Miró and His World. Barcelona, 1985, p. 237, colorpl. 21, as "Vines and Olive Trees. Mont-roig".
Margit Rowell, ed. Joan Miró: Selected Writings and Interviews. Boston, 1986, pp. ix, 60–63, 263, 309 n. 57, fig. 6 [rev. French ed., Paris, 1995, pp. 72–74, 283, 327 n. 49; Spanish ed., Valencia, 2002, pp. 105, 109, 351], as "Vines and Olive Trees," in the collection of Leigh B. Block, Santa Barbara.
Sabine Rewald inTwentieth-Century Modern Masters: The Jacques and Natasha Gelman Collection. Ed. William S. Lieberman. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1989, pp. 156–59, 180, 306, ill. (color and bw), identifies it as the view from Miró's family's farm near the village of Montroig in the province of Tarragona with, from left to right, the mountains "Pla de la Sereno," "Mola de Llaveria," and "Escornalbou," and the hermitage "Mare de Deu de la Roca" in the far distance.
William S. Lieberman inTwentieth-Century Modern Masters: The Jacques and Natasha Gelman Collection. Ed. William S. Lieberman. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1989, p. 14.
Jacques Dupin inTwentieth-Century Modern Masters: The Jacques and Natasha Gelman Collection. Ed. William S. Lieberman. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1989, p. 48.
Robert S. Lubar. "Joan Miró before 'The Farm,' 1915–1922: Catalan Nationalism and the Avant-Garde." PhD diss., New York University, 1989, pp. 164–67, 201, 210, 314, fig. 67, calls it "Vines and Olive Trees, Montroig"; dates it summer–autumn 1919, citing Miró's letter to Ricart after his return to Barcelona on October 22 in which he states that he is finishing the summer landscapes [Ref. Miró, November 1919].
Guy Weelen. Miró. New York, 1989, p. 41, pl. 47, as "Vines and Olive Trees, Montroig"; erroneously locates it as still in the Block collection.
John Russell. "20th-Century Works Collected By a Couple With a Shared Vision." New York Times (December 12, 1989), p. C24.
Harry Bellet inJoan Miró: Rétrospective de l'œuvre peint. Ed. Jean-Louis Prat. Exh. cat., Fondation Maeght, Saint-Paul-de-Vence. Paris, 1990, pp. 32–33, 199, no. 8, ill. (color), erroneously dates it after Miró's return from his first trip to Paris [mid-June 1920, see Ref. Umland 1993, p. 321].
Victoria Combalía. El Descubrimiento de Miró: Miró y sus críticos, 1918–1929. Barcelona, 1990, p. 58, ill. between pp. 112 and 113 (color), as "Vinyes i olivars, Montroig".
Rosamond Bernier. Matisse, Picasso, Miró As I Knew Them. New York, 1991, p. 226, ill. p. 224 (color).
Victoria Combalía inJoan Miró Centennial Exhibition: The Pierre Matisse Collection. Exh. cat., Yokohama Museum of Art. [Tokyo], 1992, p. 185.
Walter Erben. Joan Miró, 1893–1983: The Man and His Work. Cologne, 1993, p. 162, ill. p. 22 (color), calls it "Montroig, Vines and Olive Trees" and erroneously locates it still in the Block collection.
Juan Punyet-Miró and Gloria Lolivier-Rahola. Joan Miró, le peintre aux étoiles. [Paris], 1993, pp. 26–27, 137, ill. (color), as "Vignes et oliviers à Montroig".
Carolyn Lanchner. Joan Miró. Exh. cat., Museum of Modern Art. New York, 1993, p. 28, ill. p. 99 (color), dates it Montroig and Barcelona, July–late fall 1919.
Anne Umland in Carolyn Lanchner. Joan Miró. Exh. cat., Museum of Modern Art. New York, 1993, p. 321.
Lilian Tone in Carolyn Lanchner. Joan Miró. Exh. cat., Museum of Modern Art. New York, 1993, pp. 368–69, no. 15, ill.
Pierre Daix. "Le Surréalisme de Miró." Connaissance des arts no. 497 (July–August 1993), pp. 38, 41, fig. 3 (color).
Hajo Düchting in Walter Erben. Joan Miró, 1893–1983: The Man and His Work. Cologne, 1993, p. 22.
Daniel Giralt-Miracle. El Crit de la Terra: Joan Miró i el Camp de Tarragona. Barcelona, 1994, pp. 35, 132, 150, 199, colorpl. 32, as "Vines and Olive Trees".
Jacques Dupin and Ariane Lelong-Mainaud. Joan Miró: Catalogue raisonné. Paintings. Vol. 1, 1908–1930. [Paris], 1999, pp. 60–61, no. 69, ill. (color), call it "Mont-roig, Vineyards and Olive Trees".
Roberta Smith. "In a Brash Yet Refined School, Everyone Belongs Together." New York Times (June 15, 2001), p. E37.
Claude Laugier inJoan Miró, 1917–1934. Ed. Agnès de la Beaumelle. Exh. cat., Centre Pompidou, Paris. London, 2004, pp. 305–6, 379, fig. 3, calls it "Montroig, Vines and Olive Trees"; identifies the charcoal drawing "Landscape in the Sun" (summer 1918; Musée Zervos, Vézelay; Dupin and Lelong-Mainaud 2008, no. 164) as a study for this painting.
M. J. Balsach. Joan Miró: Cosmogonies d'un món originari (1918–1939). Barcelona, 2007, pp. 22, 27, 260, fig. 15 (color), calls it "Mont-roig, vinyes i oliveres".
Joan M. Minguet Batllori. Joan Miró. Madrid, 2008, pp. 22–23, ill. (color), calls it "Mont-roig. Viñas y olivos".
Charles Palermo. Fixed Ecstasy: Joan Miró in the 1920s. University Park, 2008, pp. 27–31, 35, 40–42, 127, 129, 196 n. 7, p. 200 n. 17, fig. 6 (color).
Tomàs Llorens. Miró: Earth. Exh. cat., Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza. Madrid, 2008, p. 32, fig. 3 (color), calls it "Mont-roig, Vineyards and Olive Trees".
Joan Ainaud de Lasarte et al., ed. Epistolari Català Joan Miró: 1911–1945. Vol. 1, Barcelona, 2009, pp. 125, 127, 132–33, 136–38, 154, ill. (color).
Roberta Smith. "Landscapes and Still Lifes of New Territories." New York Times (December 31, 2010), p. C27, ill.
Eugenio Carmona. Picasso, Miró, Dalí. Angry Young Men: The Birth of Modernity. Ed. Eugenio Carmona. Exh. cat., Palazzo Strozzi. Milan, 2011, p. 79, calls it "Mont-roig, Vineyards and Olive Trees".
Jacques Dupin. Miró. [1st ed., 1993]. Paris, 2012, pp. 72, 96, fig. 67 (color), as "Vines and Olive Trees".
Margit Rowell inMiró Constellations. Exh. cat., Acquavella Galleries. New York, 2017, p. 20, fig. 2 (color), calls it "Montroig, Vines and Olive Trees".
This painting depicts the view from Miró's family's farm near the village of Montroig in the province of Tarragona. There are five other Montroig landscapes painted in 1918–19: "Vegetable Garden and Donkey" (1918; Moderna Museet, Stockholm; Ref. Dupin and Lelong-Mainaud 1999, no. 62), "The Rut" (1918; private collection; Ref. Dupin and Lelong-Mainaud 1999, no. 63), "House with Palm Tree" (1918; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid; Ref. Dupin and Lelong-Mainaud 1999, no. 64), "Tileworks at Montroig" (1918; private collection; Ref. Dupin and Lelong-Mainaud 1999, no. 65), and "Montroig, the Church and the Village" (1919; private collection; Ref. Dupin and Lelong-Mainaud 1999, no. 66). A charcoal study for this painting, called "Landscape in the Sun," is in the Musée Zervos, Vézelay [see Ref. Laugier 2004].
Joan Miró (Spanish, Barcelona 1893–1983 Palma de Mallorca)
1956
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