House with Palm Tree

Joan Miro was a Spanish artist who painted House with Palm Tree, is La casa de la palmera, in 1918.

Miro was an experimental painter and sculptor, whose speciality was that of the Surrealistic vision of art. Throughout Miro's long artistic career, he experimented with various art techniques, mediums and ways of expressing himself on canvas. It was during 1918 that he painted four unique paintings, and in them he captured realistic landscape settings, as opposed to a surrealist view of the world. House with Palm Tree was one of these works, that were all described as detailst. All four painting were created during the summer of 1918 when Miro was staying in Montroig. Eventually in 1922 the four paintings became known collectively as The Farm or La masía.

House with Palm Tree is an incredibly realistic landscape painting and is clearly juxtaposed to his later abstract and experimental works. These depict we bright and garish colours that represented everyday items and environments. What is so surprising about House with Palm Tree is the attention to detail and accuracy. Within the art world the painting has been referred to many times as a Register of Objects. Although this oil on canvas painting was painted in 1918, Miro actually continued to work on it until 1922.

When we observe House with Palm Tree what we see is a landscape that is dominated by a large house, painted white, that is almost luminescent against a bright blue sky. The house is tall, and we can see smaller houses to either side. Slightly to the left of the canvas, can be seen the magnificent Palm Tree. It's leaves appear almost like that of peacock feathers and is sparse, so that the splendour of the building can be seen behind it. What is so very characteristic about the painting is the use of colour and geometric shapes that are incredibly prominent in the foreground of the painting, in their representation of the ground, grass and soil. It is the fine attention to detail that is most striking. This can be seen in the trunk of he Palm Tree, the plants in the ground and the windows of the building.

Miro was a painter who loved space and playing with the idea of space. He was fascinated with the sky, and this is clearly shown in House with Palm Tree, as it has an airless quality. Miro often spoke about these qualities, stating that small objects that are in seemingly vast and bare spaces have always intrigued him. This is clearly evident in House with Palm Tree.