Mireya (page 1/2)

Some images from Mireya, by Frédéric Mistral (1830‒1914) and illustrated by Enrique Serra.

The artist here appears to be Enrique Serra y Auqué (1859‒1918); the last part probably means the wanderer, or, the migrant. he was a Spanish artist who died in Rome, and was chiefly known for his landscape paintings.

Frédéric Mistral was a French writer who worked on a dictionary of a language spoken in the South of France, Occitan. The book described here, Mirèio, was published originally as a (somewhat lengthy) poem in that language. It is set in Provence, in France, and is about a girl, Mirèio, whose father is a wealthy farmer. She is in love with a young man called Vincènt, but he is only a peasant, a basket-maker, and her father doesn’t approve. So she runs away, has a religious vision of eventual happiness, and then dies.