Sixty Works by Modern Masters - Flipbook - Page 91
Joan Miró
"I try to apply colours like words
that shape poems, like notes that
shape music."
Joan Miró
Spanish, 1893 - 1983
Etude pour ‘Derrière le Miroir’, Zephyr Bird, 1956
Watercolour, wax crayon and pencil on paper
19 x 25 inches / 50.6 x 64.5 cm
Signed lower right: Miró
Signed again, inscribed and dated in the margin, lower left: fraternellement Miró. Juin 1956
This lyrical watercolour forms a
basis for Miró’s celebrated series of
Derrière le Miroir lithographs, printed
in an edition of 100 signed and
numbered impressions, as well as an
edition of 1500 unsigned editions.
The series shared its title with a
review published between 1946 and
1982 by Aimé Maeght, a French art
collector, editor and founder of the
Gallery Maeght in Paris. Miró began
his long association with Maeght
in 1948 following the opening of
Maeght's gallery, and the present
composition relates to a print entitled
Zephyr Bird (Mourlot 227) that was
reproduced in his review (June – July
– August 1956, nos. 87, 88, 89, pp.
14-15).
90
Provenance
Petimento, San Francisco
Galerie de l’Ile de France, Paris
Anon. sale, Christie’s, New York, 16 November 1983, lot 231
Private collection, Japan, by 1990
Thence by descent
Acquired from the above by the previous owner
This painting is accompanied by a certificate of
authentication kindly issued by Jacques Dupin