Thundery Sky

Thundery Sky (c. 1907) shows Mir's fascination with extreme atmospheric conditions and the way dramatic weather transforms the visual character of the Catalan landscape. Where many landscape painters favored stable, pleasant conditions, Mir was drawn to the moment of chromatic extremity: the livid greens before a storm, the sulfurous light that precedes thunder, the sudden intensity of color when sun breaks through cloud. This interest in meteorological drama had precedents in Constable's cloud studies and Turner's storm paintings, but Mir arrived at it through Mediterranean experience rather than Northern European Romanticism. The MNAC holds this oil on canvas as part of its group of works from Mir's key 1905-1910 period, when he was working with the greatest chromatic boldness. The thundery sky provided Mir with an opportunity to use a more dramatic tonal range than his typically sun-saturated landscapes, setting the lowered sky against the landscape beneath.

The dramatic atmospheric conditions inspire a palette organized around heavy sky contrasted with lit landscape beneath. Clouds are built with dense impasto strokes. Pre-storm light produces an unnatural intensification of green that Mir captures with heightened chroma against the darkening sky.