One of the most important members of abstract expressionism's second generation, Joan Mitchell executed large paintings full of energy and tension. Instead of pure abstraction, however, Mitchell concentrated on highly stylized representations of landscapes.

Mitchell was born in Chicago, where she began taking art classes in second grade. Influenced by her mother's work as coeditor of Poetry magazine and the authors who came to visit, including T. S. Eliot and Dylan Thomas, Mitchell first considered a career in writing, studying English literature at Smith College. Soon after, she decided to become a professional painter instead and received her B.F.A. and M.F.A. degrees from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

In 1950 Mitchell moved to New York and began exhibiting her work to considerable acclaim at a time when abstract expressionism was the principal avant-garde painting style. Despite her growing success as a member of the so-called New York School, the artist began spending time in France, where she had gone in 1948 on a yearlong scholarship.

After nine years in Paris, Mitchell moved to a country house in Vétheuil in 1968. She continued making large, multipart canvases, had several major retrospectives of her work, and received three honorary doctorates. In 1982 Mitchell became the first American woman to have a solo exhibition at the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris.