This landscape, depicting mountains in the distance, a river with a sailboat at midground, and a cluster of buildings in the foreground, was painted while Picasso was staying at the picturesque hilltop village of Horta de Ebro (present-day Horta de Sant Joan) in Catalonia. He reduced the already rudimentary structures of rural architecture to their geometric essences. The Oil Mill was one of the first Cubist images to be illustrated in the Italian press and inspired a rivalry with the Futurists