When Ernest and Hadley Hemingway first arrived in Paris and met Gertrude Stein, she advised the young couple to spend their money on art. Stein and her brother Leo had been collecting art since they arrived in Paris in 1902 and had amassed quite a collection that included Matisse, Picasso, and Cézanne. Hemingway took her advice but didn’t have a lot of money to spend and couldn’t afford any of the masters. Stein advised him to buy art from his contemporaries and suggested he look at Joan Miró.
Stein took him to the studio of Miró and André Mason on Rue Blomet where he watched the two painters. Mason was known for his landscape paintings and card scenes and Hem took a shine to them right away and purchased four paintings including Le Coup de Dés. Mason would later ask to borrow it back for his one-man show on a snowy night at the Galerie Simon. Hem gladly allowed it and on the night of the show he and Hadley attended to proudly see their piece and also support their friend. The plaque on Le Coup de Dés said “loaned by M Hemmingway”, annoyed that his name was spelled wrong. (It is a long family annoyance for sure)
In April 1925 on a visit to Miró’s studio, he first saw this painting, The Farm. It spoke to him in a way that a painting had never done before and he constantly thought about it. On June 12, 1925, Hem & Hadley went to Miró’s one-man show at the Galerie Pierre. When he saw the painting again it said it belonged to Evan Shipman, which crushed him. At 3500 francs was far too expensive for the couple living off her inheritance from her uncle but that didn’t stop Ernest. That night he had an advance check in his coat pocket for $200 that was to pay for their summer in Spain. That night a roll of the dice or a flip of a coin with Shipman giving the winner the chance to buy it, gave Shipman the advantage. He saw how much Hem wanted it and neither man could afford it, but he relented to his friend and let him purchase it. The next day he visited the gallery and offered him 500 francs to put down on the painting.
Hem would stop by and give the gallery a little bit of money, chipping away at the total owed until September 30, 1925, when he finally paid it off. However, not before visiting his friends and the bars of Montparnasse asking for a few francs from each person to complete the transaction. Hemingway wanted to get it in time for Hadley’s 34th birthday on November 9. And that is the most important part of this entire story. The painting hung above their bed at 113 Rue Notre-Dame des Champs as a reminder of better times in their lives when they were in Spain.
Miró’s The Farm was a landscape of his family's home near Barcelona in Mont-roig del Camp painted in 1921. It was his personal love letter to a place he loved carried out in every paint stroke. The painting was 4 x 4 feet and was one of the best pieces he had done to date. When he arrived in Paris he brought it with him and showed it to an art dealer that told him he should cut it up into smaller pieces to sell. There was no way he would do that and held onto it for five more years.
When Hemingway and Hadley split up the next year in 1926, she told him to keep it but he told her it was a gift to her for her birthday and he wanted her to have it. It would remain with Hadley and her second husband Paul Mowrer and return to Illinois with them in the 1930s. While still in Paris the Galerie Pierre attempted to purchase it back for a large profit. Although, Hemingway replied to them and said NO and to “shove the $1000 up their ass”. Hadley and Paul did loan it to the Art Institute of Chicago for many years until Galerie Pierre asked yet again to borrow it on behalf of their art dealer in New York. Asking Hemingway and not Hadley again, but this time he said yes. Hadley had it sent to New York but would have no idea it would be the last time she ever saw it again.
After the loan, The Farm was returned to Hemingway in Key West and not Hadley. When Hem and Martha Gelhorn set up their home in Cuba, he brought the painting with him, hanging it on the dining room wall.
In 1958 he agreed once again to loan it out this time to the Museum of Modern Art in New York but getting it out of Cuba was another story. The MoMa planned to send a curator to Cuba on January 4, 1959, but little did they know Cuba was going to collapse and fall into a revolt on the final day of 1958. After a few weeks of negotiation, Hemingway called it off, and he acquiesced and let them try again only if they promised that if it was destroyed they would compensate him for it. On February 1, Curator David Vance arrived in Cuba and located an armored truck that would take them to the Finca Vigia, obtain the painting, and return to the airport. A special crate was created and sent ahead but arrived in Panama instead of Cuba along with the customs paperwork.
Getting it to the airport through the roads and paths that had been destroyed was a harrowing experience and they thought they were in the clear with the painting in hand sitting on the plane. About to take off, Cuban soldiers sped down the runway and stopped them removing the painting and not allowing them to take off. The museum was able to convince the embassy that the painting was on loan and would return on a specific date, but it never would return to Cuban soil.
With the painting safely at the MoMa, curators looked at it and saw what a horrible shape it was in. The paint had faded and cracked and mildew from its former tropical home was moving through the canvas. Hemingway’s fourth wife Mary had told them it was in great condition, which would later cost Hemingway over $1500 that he personally had to pay to restore it. She was livid that they were forced to pay for it and said it was their fault.
The painting was on loan to the MoMa’s permanent collection at the time of Hemingway’s death in July 1961. In December of that year, Hadley & Paul Mowrer sent his widow Mary a letter asking for the painting that belonged to Hadley returned. Mary was outraged and said that the painting belonged to Ernest and in a letter to her lawyer was shocked that the Mowrer’s even had the nerve to ask.
A year after his death Paul and Hadley decided to sue Mary and the estate for the painting that rightfully belonged to her. Once they contacted the MoMa and let them know, it forced the museum to hold onto the painting until the legal proceedings concluded. Hemingway was a pack rat and saves every single piece of paper he ever touched. Mary had someone go through his papers to see if there was anything that mentioned Miró’s The Farm. Valerie Hemingway had found a letter that Hem had sent to Hadley asking her if he could borrow it for 6 months and he would return it afterward because it belonged to her. Hadley and Hem had a close relationship until the end of his life. He frequently confided in her and asked for her advice and they was always a steady stream of letters between them.
When Mary found this letter with the proof of ownership of The Farm, she destroyed it.
Wanting to end the fight and legal battle the Mowrers settled with Mary in 1963 resulting in a payout of $25,000 that Mary begrudgingly paid, which was less than 10% of the current value of the painting. Mary was a constantly angry woman and when she knew how the MoMa responded to the lawsuit and didn’t side with her she threatened to loan the painting to another museum.
She had no intention to let them keep it and wanted it for her new apartment in New York to once again hang in her dining room. It had been five years since it left Cuba and two years since its biggest fan took his life. The MoMa asked yet again to borrow it for a Miro retrospective, Mary of course said no, she was keeping it. However, she would allow the National Art Gallery to display it in 1976 which I am sure irritated the MoMa.
She had never gotten past her belief that the MoMa ruined it and in her will she made sure they would never see it again. In 1986, when Mary died she bequeathed it to the National Gallery with one stipulation, it had to name her Mary Hemingway as the donner. It still hangs in the National Gallery of Art with her name, who was never the rightful owner.
Recorded at the National Gallery of Art