Joan MIRO (1893-1983)
Except otherwise stated, all results include the premium.
See also : Art on paper Bird
Chronology : 1920-1929 1925 1927 1933 1938 1945 1949
See also : Art on paper Bird
Chronology : 1920-1929 1925 1927 1933 1938 1945 1949
Intro
Joan Miro first visited Paris in 1920 after appreciating the Dada movement in periodicals. Back to Paris in the next year, he was lent a studio by Gargallo next door to André Masson.
At that time avant-garde poets sought the automatic writing through the subconscious. At the end of 1923 Miro transposes these conceptions to pictorial art, anticipating by a few years Picasso's commitment to surrealism and Dali's obsessions.
Miro already considers his work to be anti-art, at the opposite of all conventions. He renounces all realism to express lyricism. His landscapes are populated with figures stylized like children's drawings. The eye is appealed by a few splashes of color on a pale monochrome background. Elements of body are dispersed within the dreamlike compositions.
In 1924 his preoccupation is pornographic. He is 31 years old and needs a woman.
The work titled Portrait de Mme K is prepared in Paris from March 1924. The most visible element of the disintegrated portrait is the oversized sex with pubic hair. The head is a black silhouette with a hanging cigarette holder. The burning heart is shaped like a bunch of flowing spermatozoids. A love arrow hits the body column.
Acquired from Max Ernst by René Gaffé in 1926, this charcoal, colored crayon, pastel, sanguine, white chalk and pencil on blanc de Meudon primed canvas 116 x 91 cm was sold from the latter's estate for $ 12.7M by Christie's on November 6, 2001, lot 14.
Danseuse Espagnole is a simplified monochrome work of the same theme, prepared at the same time. Dominated by the black head and the diagonal cigarette holder, it includes a jeweled forearm with its hand, and a pierced breast. This monumental mixed technique on canvas 240 x 150 cm was sold by Christie's for $ 9M in the same sale of the Gaffé collection, lot 16.
He develops the symbol of the man-tree, which is a link between ground and sky. The roots are replaced by bare legs below a stretched male sex. The arms are made of small side branches. The top of the figure is a mix between head and sun, with a single eye and cat whiskers. Le Piège, painted in Miro's Montroig Catalan home farm during the summer of 1924, is a demonstrator of the new style.
The work is preceded by a preparatory drawing which facilitates its deciphering. The trap on the beach is a kind of lobster rack in the shape of a female sex. It is beyond the reach of the sperm stream but awaits the rabbit and the hen which are walking in the foreground like innocent victims.
Breton is delighted. He immediately acquires the painting that he would keep throughout his life. This 92 x 73 cm oil, charcoal and graphite on canvas was sold for £ 5.3M by Christie's on March 23, 2021, lot 115.
The surrealist influence on Miro faded in the following year with the first abstract works, sometimes overwritten with a short poem. As early as 1926, a work by Miro and Ernst for the Ballets Russes was considered a bourgeois drift by the surrealists and their communist friends. Miro will keep his creative autonomy intact.
At that time avant-garde poets sought the automatic writing through the subconscious. At the end of 1923 Miro transposes these conceptions to pictorial art, anticipating by a few years Picasso's commitment to surrealism and Dali's obsessions.
Miro already considers his work to be anti-art, at the opposite of all conventions. He renounces all realism to express lyricism. His landscapes are populated with figures stylized like children's drawings. The eye is appealed by a few splashes of color on a pale monochrome background. Elements of body are dispersed within the dreamlike compositions.
In 1924 his preoccupation is pornographic. He is 31 years old and needs a woman.
The work titled Portrait de Mme K is prepared in Paris from March 1924. The most visible element of the disintegrated portrait is the oversized sex with pubic hair. The head is a black silhouette with a hanging cigarette holder. The burning heart is shaped like a bunch of flowing spermatozoids. A love arrow hits the body column.
Acquired from Max Ernst by René Gaffé in 1926, this charcoal, colored crayon, pastel, sanguine, white chalk and pencil on blanc de Meudon primed canvas 116 x 91 cm was sold from the latter's estate for $ 12.7M by Christie's on November 6, 2001, lot 14.
Danseuse Espagnole is a simplified monochrome work of the same theme, prepared at the same time. Dominated by the black head and the diagonal cigarette holder, it includes a jeweled forearm with its hand, and a pierced breast. This monumental mixed technique on canvas 240 x 150 cm was sold by Christie's for $ 9M in the same sale of the Gaffé collection, lot 16.
He develops the symbol of the man-tree, which is a link between ground and sky. The roots are replaced by bare legs below a stretched male sex. The arms are made of small side branches. The top of the figure is a mix between head and sun, with a single eye and cat whiskers. Le Piège, painted in Miro's Montroig Catalan home farm during the summer of 1924, is a demonstrator of the new style.
The work is preceded by a preparatory drawing which facilitates its deciphering. The trap on the beach is a kind of lobster rack in the shape of a female sex. It is beyond the reach of the sperm stream but awaits the rabbit and the hen which are walking in the foreground like innocent victims.
Breton is delighted. He immediately acquires the painting that he would keep throughout his life. This 92 x 73 cm oil, charcoal and graphite on canvas was sold for £ 5.3M by Christie's on March 23, 2021, lot 115.
The surrealist influence on Miro faded in the following year with the first abstract works, sometimes overwritten with a short poem. As early as 1926, a work by Miro and Ernst for the Ballets Russes was considered a bourgeois drift by the surrealists and their communist friends. Miro will keep his creative autonomy intact.
1925 Le Corps de ma Brune
2012 SOLD for £ 17M by Christie's
Surrealism is the expression of the subconscious. André Breton explains the new literary theories. In 1924 Joan Miro is one of the signatories of the Manifeste du Surréalisme.
Indeed, the artist has lost interest in realism and is exploring the dream and the subconscious. His abstraction is nevertheless inspired by his hallucinations caused by poor life conditions including hunger.
Miro's approach is deeply original and will be recognized as such by Picasso. He is the first surrealist to transcend the boundaries between poetry and painting. He receives the highest possible compliment of the demanding André Breton : "Miro is the most surrealist of ourselves."
Miro has his studio on rue Blomet, next to André Masson's. A sort of cenacle of young poets is formed, including Aragon, Eluard, Desnos, Leiris, Queneau.
Miro knew how to stage colorful symbols in a landscape environment. The influence of his new friends leads him to dreamlike abstraction. The colors he distributes on his canvases are the mirror of his subconscious. In 1925 he reflects his great personal concern of that time, the erotic inspired search for a woman.
The public loves these warm colors interspersed with biomorphic details that are not identifiable. He would later say that he was more inspired by poets than by painters. His abstraction completely escapes the geometries of Kandinsky, Malevich and Mondrian. His art is Peinture, and he often uses this French title.
Peinture, oil on canvas 146 x 114 cm painted in 1925, was sold for £ 10.2M by Christie's on March 23, 2021, lot 106. The space is filled with undulating abstract lines of great thinness, prefiguring his crypto-figurations which will culminate in 1927 with the blue period and in 1940 with the Constellations series.
The literary and artistic expression must be free from conventions, but not indispensably spontaneous. The words of the poem escape without building a usual phrase. The language of the image, close to abstraction, invites for multiple interpretations. Later when the letters will disappear from the field, the title will provide the link between the image and its multiple interpretations.
If the poem deals with the female body, for example, the observer led on by the erotic force of the words will look for some marks, and find and lose. Those two spots of color : are they the breasts or are they the eyes ?
On February 7, 2012, Christie's sold for £ 17M from a lower estimate of £ 6M "le corps de ma brune". So amazing for its time, this oil on canvas made in 1925, 130 x 96 cm, is superimposing text and colors. The layout of the words is free, like in a poem by Apollinaire.
Indeed, the artist has lost interest in realism and is exploring the dream and the subconscious. His abstraction is nevertheless inspired by his hallucinations caused by poor life conditions including hunger.
Miro's approach is deeply original and will be recognized as such by Picasso. He is the first surrealist to transcend the boundaries between poetry and painting. He receives the highest possible compliment of the demanding André Breton : "Miro is the most surrealist of ourselves."
Miro has his studio on rue Blomet, next to André Masson's. A sort of cenacle of young poets is formed, including Aragon, Eluard, Desnos, Leiris, Queneau.
Miro knew how to stage colorful symbols in a landscape environment. The influence of his new friends leads him to dreamlike abstraction. The colors he distributes on his canvases are the mirror of his subconscious. In 1925 he reflects his great personal concern of that time, the erotic inspired search for a woman.
The public loves these warm colors interspersed with biomorphic details that are not identifiable. He would later say that he was more inspired by poets than by painters. His abstraction completely escapes the geometries of Kandinsky, Malevich and Mondrian. His art is Peinture, and he often uses this French title.
Peinture, oil on canvas 146 x 114 cm painted in 1925, was sold for £ 10.2M by Christie's on March 23, 2021, lot 106. The space is filled with undulating abstract lines of great thinness, prefiguring his crypto-figurations which will culminate in 1927 with the blue period and in 1940 with the Constellations series.
The literary and artistic expression must be free from conventions, but not indispensably spontaneous. The words of the poem escape without building a usual phrase. The language of the image, close to abstraction, invites for multiple interpretations. Later when the letters will disappear from the field, the title will provide the link between the image and its multiple interpretations.
If the poem deals with the female body, for example, the observer led on by the erotic force of the words will look for some marks, and find and lose. Those two spots of color : are they the breasts or are they the eyes ?
On February 7, 2012, Christie's sold for £ 17M from a lower estimate of £ 6M "le corps de ma brune". So amazing for its time, this oil on canvas made in 1925, 130 x 96 cm, is superimposing text and colors. The layout of the words is free, like in a poem by Apollinaire.
1927 Etoile Bleue
2012 SOLD for £ 23.5M by Sotheby's
Miro was the most abstract of the surrealists and the most surreal of the abstract. His use of geometric shapes is as hermetic as the artistic grammar of Kandinsky. The title of the work invites the viewer to a certain vision that is never the only possible interpretation.
Painted in 1927, Peinture (étoile bleue), is typical and can rightly be considered as an outstanding work of the artist. It was sold for € 11.6M by Aguttes on December 21, 2007 and for £ 23.5M by Sotheby's on June 19, 2012, lot 10.
Never a visible star was blue, but the universe of Miro is completely dreamlike. The artwork, an oil on canvas 115 x 89 cm, is actually azure dark blue, anticipating over thirty years Klein's IKB.
The vertical format invites to gravity, but the opposite occurs. The forms that sail in this space are completely free and far between, like galaxies in the sky.
Painted in 1927, Peinture (étoile bleue), is typical and can rightly be considered as an outstanding work of the artist. It was sold for € 11.6M by Aguttes on December 21, 2007 and for £ 23.5M by Sotheby's on June 19, 2012, lot 10.
Never a visible star was blue, but the universe of Miro is completely dreamlike. The artwork, an oil on canvas 115 x 89 cm, is actually azure dark blue, anticipating over thirty years Klein's IKB.
The vertical format invites to gravity, but the opposite occurs. The forms that sail in this space are completely free and far between, like galaxies in the sky.
1927 Femme au Chapeau Rouge
2020 SOLD for £ 22.3M by Sotheby's
When Breton is preparing the Manifeste du Surréalisme in 1924, this movement is mainly literary. It is Miro who will make the link between art and poetry, with his cycle of dream paintings. The exuberant titles give way to a minimalist description : "Peinture", sometimes followed by a subtitle.
This phase culminates in 1927 with the blue period. The background is an opaque sky blue, azul in Spanish. This too saturated but very bright color had traditionally discouraged artists but could evoke a spirituality. It will inspire Klein's transcendental IKB.
The artist's graphic technique is unprecedented. The image approaches a very schematic reality, by the spots of vivid colors that dot its surface. The dream is a very narrow black line which complements the previous forms and often contradicts them. He will reuse this opposition with high virtuosity in his war series of the Constellations.
This graphic duality is present in Peinture (Etoile bleue), which derives its subtitle from a cobalt blue star. The figuration is a tiny tightrope walker in a spinning movement. This oil on canvas 115 x 89 cm was sold for £ 23.5M by Sotheby's in 2012.
On July 28, 2020, Sotheby's sold for £ 22.3M Peinture (Femme au chapeau rouge), oil on canvas 130 x 97 cm, lot 17. This work attests to the influence of Miro on Calder who managed to acquire it in 1966. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
Invited by the subtitle, the observer quickly finds the spot that represents the hat. The image of the woman is gradually created from top to bottom, with the golden neckline, the black corset and the large white apron that flies in the wind. The black line could have underlined the torso if it did not protrude above the hat. In the lower part of the image, it forms a sort of crinoline on the left of the apron.
This phase culminates in 1927 with the blue period. The background is an opaque sky blue, azul in Spanish. This too saturated but very bright color had traditionally discouraged artists but could evoke a spirituality. It will inspire Klein's transcendental IKB.
The artist's graphic technique is unprecedented. The image approaches a very schematic reality, by the spots of vivid colors that dot its surface. The dream is a very narrow black line which complements the previous forms and often contradicts them. He will reuse this opposition with high virtuosity in his war series of the Constellations.
This graphic duality is present in Peinture (Etoile bleue), which derives its subtitle from a cobalt blue star. The figuration is a tiny tightrope walker in a spinning movement. This oil on canvas 115 x 89 cm was sold for £ 23.5M by Sotheby's in 2012.
On July 28, 2020, Sotheby's sold for £ 22.3M Peinture (Femme au chapeau rouge), oil on canvas 130 x 97 cm, lot 17. This work attests to the influence of Miro on Calder who managed to acquire it in 1966. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
Invited by the subtitle, the observer quickly finds the spot that represents the hat. The image of the woman is gradually created from top to bottom, with the golden neckline, the black corset and the large white apron that flies in the wind. The black line could have underlined the torso if it did not protrude above the hat. In the lower part of the image, it forms a sort of crinoline on the left of the apron.
1933 Peinture
2017 SOLD for $ 23.4M by Christie's
Since his surrealist period Joan Miro knows that painting is no more than colors on a support. He begins to name his own paintings with their elementary description : "Peinture", sometimes with a subtitle. His desire is poetic. In 1927 he is very close to abstraction with pictures of a nocturnal atmosphere where hardly perceptible spots and lines coexist.
For the surrealists this trend is an inadmissible drift. Miro does not agree with the communist affiliations of the group. The break is snarling. When Miro announced to Tériade in 1930 that he wanted to assassinate the painting, it meant that he desired to define a new art, alone, without the influence of any past or present school.
For the next two years he tries collages that do not satisfy him. In early 1933 in his mother's apartment in Barcelona, he defines a two-step process for a homogeneous series of 18 artworks. He prepares 18 maquettes by gluing folded or crumpled papers. Each oil on canvas will be inspired by one of these models without being a copy. The title "Peinture" is reused for this series.
This post-Dadaist process may seem complex compared to direct painting. Miro knows that his imagination is unlimited. He probably wanted to bring a guide for avoiding any figuration. He expresses his subconscious by a composition similar to the 1927 Peintures except that the spots inspired by the collages are brightly colored, appearing as abstract objects floating ahead of the night.
A Peinture, oil on canvas 130 x 162 cm from the 1933 series, was sold for $ 23.4M from a lower estimate of $ 18M by Christie's on November 13, 2017, lot 31 A. Another example, 146 x 115 cm was sold for $ 11M by Christie's on May 8, 2013.
The Constellations painted in response to the outbreak of World War II are similar in design to the Peintures of 1927 and 1933. The dream of the starry night is now confessed by the artist and the mythical theme of the constellation brings some figuration.
For the surrealists this trend is an inadmissible drift. Miro does not agree with the communist affiliations of the group. The break is snarling. When Miro announced to Tériade in 1930 that he wanted to assassinate the painting, it meant that he desired to define a new art, alone, without the influence of any past or present school.
For the next two years he tries collages that do not satisfy him. In early 1933 in his mother's apartment in Barcelona, he defines a two-step process for a homogeneous series of 18 artworks. He prepares 18 maquettes by gluing folded or crumpled papers. Each oil on canvas will be inspired by one of these models without being a copy. The title "Peinture" is reused for this series.
This post-Dadaist process may seem complex compared to direct painting. Miro knows that his imagination is unlimited. He probably wanted to bring a guide for avoiding any figuration. He expresses his subconscious by a composition similar to the 1927 Peintures except that the spots inspired by the collages are brightly colored, appearing as abstract objects floating ahead of the night.
A Peinture, oil on canvas 130 x 162 cm from the 1933 series, was sold for $ 23.4M from a lower estimate of $ 18M by Christie's on November 13, 2017, lot 31 A. Another example, 146 x 115 cm was sold for $ 11M by Christie's on May 8, 2013.
The Constellations painted in response to the outbreak of World War II are similar in design to the Peintures of 1927 and 1933. The dream of the starry night is now confessed by the artist and the mythical theme of the constellation brings some figuration.
1938 La Caresse des Etoiles
2008 SOLD for $ 17M by Christie's
Joan Miro is a poet of graphic art. He would have liked his bright colors to express hopes in front of the social difficulties of Spain, but a poet cannot be a warrior. In October 1936, three months after the outbreak of the civil war, he goes into exile in Paris.
In 1937, Miro's political commitment becomes visible. In the pavilion of the Spanish Republic at the Exposition Universelle in Paris, he paints El Segador, a set of panels of 5.5 m total height. The reaper is a symbol of Catalan nationalism. He screams his desperation, not far from the horse of Guernica.
La Caresse des Etoiles, oil on canvas 60 x 69 cm painted in July 1938, is one of these forcedly optimistic pictures as evidenced by the title which gathers two pleasures. As often with Miro, a closer inspection reveals a more tragic message.
A family of four highly stylized characters are watching the sky in a starred night. The character on the foreground displays the same symbols as El Segador, supplying a political signature to the artwork. His open mouth is screaming some revolutionary statement. The woman has a cat's head while the head of the central child is the sun.
It was probably painted in Varengeville, the village in Normandy where Miro spent the summer, and where he will execute his masterpiece series of Constellations two years later.
This significant painting was hidden by Pierre Loeb during the Nazi occupation and acquired from him at the Liberation by an agent of the US information services while stationing in Paris. Coming in his deceased estate and then unknown to Dupin, it was sold by Christie's for $ 11.8M on November 3, 2004, lot 11. It was sold again by Christie's for $ 17M on May 6, 2008, lot 33.
In 1937, Miro's political commitment becomes visible. In the pavilion of the Spanish Republic at the Exposition Universelle in Paris, he paints El Segador, a set of panels of 5.5 m total height. The reaper is a symbol of Catalan nationalism. He screams his desperation, not far from the horse of Guernica.
La Caresse des Etoiles, oil on canvas 60 x 69 cm painted in July 1938, is one of these forcedly optimistic pictures as evidenced by the title which gathers two pleasures. As often with Miro, a closer inspection reveals a more tragic message.
A family of four highly stylized characters are watching the sky in a starred night. The character on the foreground displays the same symbols as El Segador, supplying a political signature to the artwork. His open mouth is screaming some revolutionary statement. The woman has a cat's head while the head of the central child is the sun.
It was probably painted in Varengeville, the village in Normandy where Miro spent the summer, and where he will execute his masterpiece series of Constellations two years later.
This significant painting was hidden by Pierre Loeb during the Nazi occupation and acquired from him at the Liberation by an agent of the US information services while stationing in Paris. Coming in his deceased estate and then unknown to Dupin, it was sold by Christie's for $ 11.8M on November 3, 2004, lot 11. It was sold again by Christie's for $ 17M on May 6, 2008, lot 33.
1940 Femme et Oiseaux
2017 SOLD for £ 24.5M by Sotheby's
Joan Miro did not want to engage in politics but the tragic events forced his hand. His participation in the pavilion of the Spanish Republic at the 1937 Paris Exhibition did not go unnoticed. He feared retaliation and moved to Varengeville-sur-Mer in 1939.
Varengeville is one of the prettiest villages on the Normandy coast. Braque has his workshop and spends summers there. Calder is a frequent visitor. In this small land's end Miro calms his anxieties by contemplating the immensity of the night sky.
The personalization of the groupings of stars is one of the oldest poetic themes of our civilizations. Miro is not an astrologer but he is a poet. With the exceptional freedom of his imagination he superimposes on the sky the images of his fantasy.
In January 1940 Miro begins a series of artworks on the theme of the Constellations. They will all be on paper in the same size, 38 x 46 cm. The background is prepared by splashes of gouache and oil paint, more or less dark. The crescent moon and a few stars are the spectacular elements in bright colors accompanied by floating symbolic or abstract forms. The constellation, woman or bird, is a figure in thin lines surrounded by scrolls, scarcely more visible than a watermark.
The artist conceived from the outset this series as a coherent whole. The use of a a small and light format was premonitory. When he fled France to return to Spain in May 1940 he could take in his luggage the entire set : ten finished works and the pieces of paper that he will be use for the thirteen subsequent works.
The series of Constellations was completed in September 1941. Miro kept the secret until an exhibition in New York in 1945. Pollock was convinced by a possible non-figurative artistic transposition of an observable reality. With the Constellations of Miro modern art has just crossed the Atlantic.
The eighth opus of Miro's Constellations is dated 13 April 1940. Its unusually simple title, Femme et Oiseaux, prefigures the favorite themes of the artist for the rest of his career. In this sky that calls for peace, Joan Miro is not calmed : the woman howls. It was sold for £ 24.5M by Sotheby's on June 21, 2017, lot 45. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
Varengeville is one of the prettiest villages on the Normandy coast. Braque has his workshop and spends summers there. Calder is a frequent visitor. In this small land's end Miro calms his anxieties by contemplating the immensity of the night sky.
The personalization of the groupings of stars is one of the oldest poetic themes of our civilizations. Miro is not an astrologer but he is a poet. With the exceptional freedom of his imagination he superimposes on the sky the images of his fantasy.
In January 1940 Miro begins a series of artworks on the theme of the Constellations. They will all be on paper in the same size, 38 x 46 cm. The background is prepared by splashes of gouache and oil paint, more or less dark. The crescent moon and a few stars are the spectacular elements in bright colors accompanied by floating symbolic or abstract forms. The constellation, woman or bird, is a figure in thin lines surrounded by scrolls, scarcely more visible than a watermark.
The artist conceived from the outset this series as a coherent whole. The use of a a small and light format was premonitory. When he fled France to return to Spain in May 1940 he could take in his luggage the entire set : ten finished works and the pieces of paper that he will be use for the thirteen subsequent works.
The series of Constellations was completed in September 1941. Miro kept the secret until an exhibition in New York in 1945. Pollock was convinced by a possible non-figurative artistic transposition of an observable reality. With the Constellations of Miro modern art has just crossed the Atlantic.
The eighth opus of Miro's Constellations is dated 13 April 1940. Its unusually simple title, Femme et Oiseaux, prefigures the favorite themes of the artist for the rest of his career. In this sky that calls for peace, Joan Miro is not calmed : the woman howls. It was sold for £ 24.5M by Sotheby's on June 21, 2017, lot 45. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
March 22, 1945 Femme dans la Nuit
2018 SOLD for $ 22.6M by Phillips
The war in Europe and the political situation in Spain deeply disturbed Joan Miro. Escaping in the contemplation of the stars, he had made his 1940 Constellations series and had hidden them. He then devotes his creativity to the entanglement of three themes : woman, star, bird.
In July 1944 Miro managed to send the Constellations to the United States. Pierre Matisse bought the series which he exhibited in his gallery in New York in January 1945. At that time it becomes legitimate to imagine that the end of the horrors is coming. In his studio in Barcelona, Miro accompanies this hope by a chronicle of oils on canvas, a technique that he had not used during the darkest hours.
The first installment of this series is dated January 26 and titled Femme et Oiseau dans la Nuit. The outlines of the woman are painted in thin black lines, much easier to read over the bright white background than the extraterrestrial characters of the 1940 Constellations. The eyes and the sex form colorful figures inside this body.
This dreamlike image is neither realistic nor cubist. The position of the eyes in the circle of the head responds only to a geometric balance. The composition is completed by musical notes and by stars.
As expected, the situation is improving. On February 1 with a Femme rêvant de l'Evasion (woman dreaming of escape), the wicked birds have already disappeared. This oil on canvas 146 x 114 cm was sold for £ 8.4M by Sotheby's on February 5, 2013, lot 26.
The main figure is human, but done in fine lines and patches of color. The symbolic star is present, but clearly apart from the four sensory phylacteries that materialize the dream. The forms that appear at the top of the image and inside the face look like musical notes. The scale of evasion is included or not, it is up to you to decide.
That naive drawing on a light background is remarkably modern for its time, indeed preceding the research by Dubuffet and Chaissac on Art Brut.
On November 15, 2018, Phillips sold for $ 22.6M from a lower estimate of $ 12M a Femme dans la Nuit dated March 22, oil on canvas 130 x 163 cm, lot 4. Please watch the video prepared by the auction house.
In July 1944 Miro managed to send the Constellations to the United States. Pierre Matisse bought the series which he exhibited in his gallery in New York in January 1945. At that time it becomes legitimate to imagine that the end of the horrors is coming. In his studio in Barcelona, Miro accompanies this hope by a chronicle of oils on canvas, a technique that he had not used during the darkest hours.
The first installment of this series is dated January 26 and titled Femme et Oiseau dans la Nuit. The outlines of the woman are painted in thin black lines, much easier to read over the bright white background than the extraterrestrial characters of the 1940 Constellations. The eyes and the sex form colorful figures inside this body.
This dreamlike image is neither realistic nor cubist. The position of the eyes in the circle of the head responds only to a geometric balance. The composition is completed by musical notes and by stars.
As expected, the situation is improving. On February 1 with a Femme rêvant de l'Evasion (woman dreaming of escape), the wicked birds have already disappeared. This oil on canvas 146 x 114 cm was sold for £ 8.4M by Sotheby's on February 5, 2013, lot 26.
The main figure is human, but done in fine lines and patches of color. The symbolic star is present, but clearly apart from the four sensory phylacteries that materialize the dream. The forms that appear at the top of the image and inside the face look like musical notes. The scale of evasion is included or not, it is up to you to decide.
That naive drawing on a light background is remarkably modern for its time, indeed preceding the research by Dubuffet and Chaissac on Art Brut.
On November 15, 2018, Phillips sold for $ 22.6M from a lower estimate of $ 12M a Femme dans la Nuit dated March 22, oil on canvas 130 x 163 cm, lot 4. Please watch the video prepared by the auction house.
May 7, 1945 Femme, Etoiles
2022 SOLD for $ 17.8M by Sotheby's
The 18th and last opus of the war series, Femme, Etoiles is dated May 7, 1945, the day before the unconditional surrender of Germany. Normal life is going to restart.
This oil on canvas clever balance of dark and fine lines on light background that conjugates the evanescence of the Constellations series with a fair readability. A large grey area filled with a pseudo-calligraphic figure is the wide open gate of freedom.
Femme, Etoiles, oil in canvas 114 x 146 cm, was sold for $ 17.8M by Sotheby's on November 14, 2022, lot 4. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
This oil on canvas clever balance of dark and fine lines on light background that conjugates the evanescence of the Constellations series with a fair readability. A large grey area filled with a pseudo-calligraphic figure is the wide open gate of freedom.
Femme, Etoiles, oil in canvas 114 x 146 cm, was sold for $ 17.8M by Sotheby's on November 14, 2022, lot 4. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
May 11, 1945 Femme entendant de la musique
2018 SOLD for $ 21.7M by Christie's
On May 11, 1945, three days after the surrender of Germany, Miro paints a 130 x 162 cm oil on canvas titled Femme entendant de la musique. Five reserves on a black background are each inhabited by a hybrid calligraphy that is both a musician and a musical note. The dark background, scarce in that year in Miro's art, is a dynamic evocation of the atmosphere of a cabaret.
Femme entendant de la musique was sold for $ 21.7M from a lower estimate of $ 10M by Christie's on May 15, 2018, lot 5 A.
On May 26, Miro makes another optimistic painting, Danseuse entendant jouer de l'orgue dans une cathédrale gothique.
Femme entendant de la musique was sold for $ 21.7M from a lower estimate of $ 10M by Christie's on May 15, 2018, lot 5 A.
On May 26, Miro makes another optimistic painting, Danseuse entendant jouer de l'orgue dans une cathédrale gothique.
1949 Femmes, Lune, Etoiles
2023 SOLD for € 20.8M by Christie's
From 1945 Miro's art exploded in the joy of the end of war. His bright colors and stylized figures may become exuberant again.
L'Auberge de la Colombe d'Or, originally Chez Robinson, was founded in 1920 at Saint-Paul de Vence by Paul Roux, an amateur of art and poetry. In a wonderful hilltop landscape, the hotel equipped with a terrace gathers the avant-garde artists, poets and movie stars.
Nobody better than Miro would mingle bright painting and surrealist poetry. In 1950 at the Galerie Maeght in Paris, Roux purchases Peinture (Femmes, Lune, Etoiles). This work features a joyful crowd of dancers on a radiant background. Two of the minor figures have the French bleu blanc rouge colors. Moon and stars connect to the cosmos.
This oil and casein paint on canvas 73 x 92 cm executed in 1949 remained on the wall of the dining room during seven decades. It was sold for € 20.8M by Christie's on October 20, 2023, lot 309. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
Miro made his first visit to the auberge in 1951.
L'Auberge de la Colombe d'Or, originally Chez Robinson, was founded in 1920 at Saint-Paul de Vence by Paul Roux, an amateur of art and poetry. In a wonderful hilltop landscape, the hotel equipped with a terrace gathers the avant-garde artists, poets and movie stars.
Nobody better than Miro would mingle bright painting and surrealist poetry. In 1950 at the Galerie Maeght in Paris, Roux purchases Peinture (Femmes, Lune, Etoiles). This work features a joyful crowd of dancers on a radiant background. Two of the minor figures have the French bleu blanc rouge colors. Moon and stars connect to the cosmos.
This oil and casein paint on canvas 73 x 92 cm executed in 1949 remained on the wall of the dining room during seven decades. It was sold for € 20.8M by Christie's on October 20, 2023, lot 309. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
Miro made his first visit to the auberge in 1951.
