Catalan landscape painter Joaquin Mir Trinxet (1873 – 1940) led an ill-fated 19th century crusade to get Spanish artists to embrace modernism without letting go of Spain’s proud realist tradition. Gloriously successful as art, the work of Mir Trinxet and his “modernistes” was completely eclipsed by the real “shock of the new” that very shortly after characterized the truly modernist painting come of out Spain, a good deal of it by Spanish artists.

For Joaquin Mir Trinxet and his followers, history’s pull was strong. After all, Spanish painters Diego Velasquez and Francisco de Zurbaran during the 1600s strongly helped establish non-religious realism as a mode of great art. Then there was Goya, El Greco, and Sorolla; and only later into the 20th century did radicals like Juan Gris, Picasso, Dali, and Miro arrive to invent the abstraction and surrealism that really did lead the way into European modernism.

Joaquin Mir Trinxet, “Rural landscape”, oil.

fusion of pre- and post-Impressionism and observational plein air painting that they are. This artist was treating color as fearlessly and as wildly as Gaugin while keeping his eye on the seen. His brush handling can be wild, exuberant, even unruly, and elsewhere it can be poetic and understated. 

While the main attraction is the color, these paintings remain testaments to seeing big and responding exuberantly to the world in paint. In that sense, he was indeed ahead of his time – he just didn’t know how much; it’s only now, after the 100-year deluge of abstract and non-representational painting that left him behind, that artists en masse are occupying the ground between traditional realism and impressionistic-imaginative expression.

Joaquin Mir Trinxet, Landscape, Vilanova,

Joaquin Mir Trinxet, “View of L’ Aleixar” about 1915-1919. 62.5 × 92.5 cm. Bilbao Fine Arts Museum.

Sometimes Mir Trixet seems to be giving a nod to Gustav Klimt and creating his own brand of abstract tonalist landscape painting.

Joaquin Mir Trinxet, “Spring,” 1910

Joaquin Mir Trinxet, “Sunset”

At other times, he revels in jewel-like complementary multi-colors, seemingly merging with nature and losing himself in the intensity of light and hue.

Joaquin Mir Trinxet, “Village, San Quirce de Valles

Mir summed up his private art manifesto in 1928: “All I want is for my works to lighten the heart and flood the eyes and the soul with light.”

While he borrowed from the Impressionists and post-Impressionists, he created a landscape and a world all his own. Color and light meant everything to him, and he used them to build a personal, up-to-date idiom beyond the art movements like Impressionism or Symbolism he drew from but never joined. Although his artistic development varied between realism and abstraction, two features crop up throughout his entire output: the urge to establish a new vision of nature and an unremitting search for beauty marked by genuine creative tension. 

So, while oscillating between respect for Hispanic traditions and modernity, Mir Trixet took the landscape into a new, as yet unknown dimension of his own invention. A marvelous and original painter, he’s one to know.

The Rock in the Pond (circa 1903). 102 × 128 cm. Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya.

The Jewel (circa 1910). 125.5 × 168.5 cm. Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya.

Stained glass triptych: El Gorg Blau (circa 1911). 222 × 294 mm. Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya.

Joaquin Mir Trinxet, “Montserrat” (Museu de Montserrat Montserrat | Spain)

Joaquin Mir Trinxet, “Landscape” (around 1900-03)

Joaquin Mir Trinxet, “Mirror of the Church,” 1926, oil

Joaquin Mir Trinxet, “Carrer dels Terrissaires

If you’re interested in learning a plein air technique that frees you to interpret instead of trying to reproduce the landscape, check out these videos by major practitioners in the field.

And get ready for PACE (the Plein Air Convention & Expo). This year’s PACE (the 12th annual in-person Plein Air Convention & Expo) will be held May 19-23, 2025 adjacent to the shores of Lake Tahoe, with many participants staying at the Nugget Casino Resort in Reno, Nevada. Learn more and register now!