Born in 1893, Joan Miro was a famous, Spanish Catalan artist. He did works in sculpture, painting, and worked as a ceramist. Born in the seaport city of Barcelona, much of his work was influenced by the scenic seaside town, and the distinct style that he found in the area. His father was a watchmaker, and his mother worked as a goldsmith, which means that he was exposed to the arts, and working with various forms of art, from a young age in the home. Some of the work that has been recovered, stems back to 1901, when Joan Miro was only 8 years old.
Miro initially went to business school as well as art school. He began his working career when he was a teenager as a clerk. In 1911, Miro overcame a serious battle with typhoid illness, and at about the same time he abandoned the business world completely to devote his entire life to painting. Miro's early art, like that of the similarly influenced Fauves and Cubists exhibited in Barcelona, was inspired by works of Vincent van Gogh and Paul Cezanne. The resemblance of Miro's work to that of the intermediate generation of the avant-garde has led scholars to dub this period his Catalan Fauvist period. In 1918, Joan Miro was set up for his first solo exhibit at the Dalmau Galleries in Barcelona.
In 1919 Miró made his first trip to Paris, France, and thereafter he spent the winters in Paris and the summers in Montroig. His first one-man show in Paris was held in 1921 and his paintings of this period reflect cubist influences. His painting, Montroig, for example, has a frontal, geometric pattern greatly influenced by cubism.