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Lot Essay
Jacques Dupin has confirmed the authenticity of this work.
'The spectacle of the sky overwhelms me. I'm overwhelmed when I see the crescent of the moon or the sun in an immense sky. In my paintings, as a matter of fact, there are tiny shapes in great empty spaces. Empty spaces, empty horizons, empty plains, everything stripped down has always made a great impression on me' (Joan Miró, quoted in exh. cat., Joan Miró 1893-1993, Barcelona 1993, p. 423).
In Personnages devant le soleil Miró fills the sheet with archetypes from his dramatic repertoire. The figure of a woman or dancer, one of Miró's favourite characters, takes centre stage at the lower edge of the composition. Roland Penrose has explained the importance of such female subjects to the artist: 'As the producer of life she is possessed of brilliance and authority. She finds her place among the elements, standing before the sun, the moon or the stars or with birds in the night and she is equally powerful as a symbol of darkness and of death...Far-reaching implications are born from the ligthness of touch which makes his work both a simple delight and a profound experience. Woman and bird, substance and void, the obvious and the inexpressible, are brought within our experience. Behind the cheerful, innocent, even tranquil look in his face, Miró has never been immune to attacks of violent anguish and depression. He has, however, always been able to balance the threats of imminent disaster by equally potent forces' (in Miró, London, 1970, p. 96).
'The spectacle of the sky overwhelms me. I'm overwhelmed when I see the crescent of the moon or the sun in an immense sky. In my paintings, as a matter of fact, there are tiny shapes in great empty spaces. Empty spaces, empty horizons, empty plains, everything stripped down has always made a great impression on me' (Joan Miró, quoted in exh. cat., Joan Miró 1893-1993, Barcelona 1993, p. 423).
In Personnages devant le soleil Miró fills the sheet with archetypes from his dramatic repertoire. The figure of a woman or dancer, one of Miró's favourite characters, takes centre stage at the lower edge of the composition. Roland Penrose has explained the importance of such female subjects to the artist: 'As the producer of life she is possessed of brilliance and authority. She finds her place among the elements, standing before the sun, the moon or the stars or with birds in the night and she is equally powerful as a symbol of darkness and of death...Far-reaching implications are born from the ligthness of touch which makes his work both a simple delight and a profound experience. Woman and bird, substance and void, the obvious and the inexpressible, are brought within our experience. Behind the cheerful, innocent, even tranquil look in his face, Miró has never been immune to attacks of violent anguish and depression. He has, however, always been able to balance the threats of imminent disaster by equally potent forces' (in Miró, London, 1970, p. 96).