The painting River Onyar in Girona, painted by Mela Muter in the spring of 1914, depicts the most recognisable element of the urban landscape of this Catalan city.

Mela Muter
Arriving in Catalonia from Paris on several occasions, Muter introduced an invigorating breath of art from the cosmopolitan French capital into the local environment through exhibitions in Barcelona (1911, Dalmau Gallery) and Girona (1914). The landscape evoked here perfectly captures both the painter's individual trait and also fits perfectly into the mainstream of the then-current pursuits of artists from the widely understood Paris School. The strong, unobvious colouring reflecting the individually experienced mood, the unobtrusive monumentalism of the works, as well as the characteristic, seemingly careless manner of the brushstroke on the often unprimed canvases, made Mela Muter's art seductive to Catalans. The monographic presentation of the painter's oeuvre in Girona made her a legend and a myth of the city. This 'exceptional woman' (in the words of the versatile artist Miquel de Palol) caused an unusually strong stir in the city's intellectual circles. Folch y Torres, discussing the painter's achievements at the time, also pointed out the spiritual convergence between Poland and Catalonia. He claimed that in Muter's paintings it was possible to see 'a certain pain' and 'raw realism' resulting from a shared experience of the lack of their own statehood.

Image of L'Onyar a Girona
In the caption to the painting L'Onyar a Girona, the artist included information identifying her Polish nationality, with which she had been very connected throughout her life. In doing so, she indicated that she belonged to a circle of artists 'uprooted from their homeland'. Today, the work is one of the most important exhibits in the 20th century painting collection at the Catalan Museum of Art. A few weeks ago, an exhibition was opened within its walls, presenting the work of Mela Muter against the background of other Polish artists in a beautiful and convincing manner. Her words "No sóc dona, sóc pintora!" (I am not a woman, I am a painter!) resonate again on the stage of the local theatre during a specially written play about the Polish artist in Catalonia.

Girona [Catalan pronunciation Ʒi'ronɘ; Spanish pronunciation Xe'rona], a city 80 km from Barcelona (known to cinema lovers for the filming of most of the scenes of Tom Tykwer's film 'Perfume').