The free-floating fantasy and delicate calligraphic lines of Miró's painting show the influence of the Surrealist circle. In the 1920s the artist became part of the group of artists, critics, and poets. As Miró recalled later: "As for Breton and Eluard...they ignored my existence until my painting freed itself in the direction of poetry and dreams."
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Inscription: Signed and dated (lower center): Miró/ 1927
the artist (1927–28; sold in 1928 to Galerie Pierre); [Galerie Pierre, Paris, 1928–37; on consignment to Pierre Matisse Gallery, October 18, 1935, consignment no. 545; sold on May 14, 1937, for $671, to P. Matisse]; [Pierre Matisse Gallery, New York, 1937–44; stock no. 617; sold on October 4, 1944, for $1,250, to Matisse]; Mr. and Mrs. Pierre Matisse, New York (1944–49; in 1949 to Mrs. Pierre [Alexina] Matisse); Alexina Matisse (later Alexina Duchamp), New York and Villiers-sous-Grez (from 1949); [New Gallery, New York, until 1959; sold on November 3, 1959 in exchange for Miró, "Personnage" plus $20,000, to Gelman]; Jacques and Natasha Gelman, Mexico City and New York (1959–his d. 1986); Natasha Gelman, Mexico City and New York (1986–d. 1998; her bequest to MMA)
Paris. Galerie Georges Bernheim. "Joan Miró," May 1–15, 1928, no catalogue.
New York. Pierre Matisse Gallery. "Large Paintings, Eight Moderns," January 14–February 8, 1936, no. 4 (as "Animated Landscape," first showing in America).
New York. Pierre Matisse Gallery. "Miro: Paintings, Gouaches," March 4–29, 1941, no. 1.
Portland, Ore. Portland Art Museum. "Joan Miró," April 8–May 6, 1942, no catalogue.
San Francisco Museum of Art. "Joan Miró," June 2–July 5, 1942, no catalogue.
New York. Museum of Modern Art. "Large-Scale Modern Paintings," April 1–May 4, 1947, no catalogue (checklist no. 15; lent by Mr. and Mrs. Pierre Matisse).
New York. Pierre Matisse Gallery. "Joan Miró," March 16–April 10, 1948, no. 2.
New York. Pierre Matisse Gallery. "Joan Miró, 1923–1927," April 19–May 14, 1949, no. 9 (as "Landscape").
Dallas Museum for Contemporary Arts. "Signposts of Twentieth Century Art," October 28–December 7, 1959, unnumbered cat. (p. 40; lent by the New Gallery, New York).
London. Tate Gallery. "Joan Miró," August 27–October 11, 1964, no. 72 (lent by Mr. and Mrs. Jacques Gelman, Mexico City).
Kunsthaus Zürich. "Joan Miró," October 31–December 6, 1964, no. 72.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Twentieth-Century Modern Masters: The Jacques and Natasha Gelman Collection," December 12, 1989–April 1, 1990, unnumbered cat. (p. 181).
London. Royal Academy of Arts. "Twentieth-Century Modern Masters: The Jacques and Natasha Gelman Collection," April 19–July 15, 1990, unnumbered cat.
Saint-Paul-de-Vence. Fondation Maeght. "Joan Miró: Rétrospective de l'œuvre peint," July 4–October 7, 1990, no. 30 (lent by the Collection Jacques et Natasha Gelman, New York) [joined the exhibition following the close of Exh. London 1990].
Museum of Modern Art, New York. "Joan Miró," October 17, 1993–January 11, 1994, no. 71 (lent by The Jacques and Natasha Gelman Collection).
Martigny. Fondation Pierre Gianadda. "De Matisse à Picasso: Collection Jacques et Natasha Gelman," June 18–November 1, 1994, unnumbered cat. (p. 205).
Mexico City. Centro Cultural Arte Contemporáneo. "Joan Miró, la Colección del Centro Georges Pompidou, Musée National d'Art Moderne y otras colecciones," February 12–May 24, 1998, no. 14.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Miró: The Dutch Interiors," October 5, 2010–January 17, 2011, no catalogue.
Joan Miró. Letter to Pierre Loeb. November 7, 1927 [Archive Albert Loeb, Paris; excerpt published in English transl. in Ref. Beaumelle 2004, p. 333], describes this picture, soon to be finished, as "one of my best in several years".
L'Amic de les arts 3 (June 30, 1928), ill. p. 201.
Francesc Trabal. "Una Conversa amb Joan Miró." La Publicitat 50 (July 14, 1928), p. 4 [English transl. published in Ref. Rowell 1986, pp. 92–98], remarks that he painted seven large canvases in the summer of 1927 at Montroig; states that out of the forty-one paintings exhibited at the Galerie Georges Bernheim in May 1928, Pierre Loeb reserved a dozen for himself [including this painting], and that all the rest were sold.
Joan Miró. Letter to Josep Francesc Ràfols. February 7, 1928 [published in Ref. Ainaud de Lasarte 2009, pp. 336–37, letter no. 221; excerpt published in English transl. in Refs. Umland 1993, p. 326, Beaumelle 2004, p. 334], remarks that he wishes Ràfols could see his recent large canvases painted in Montroig [including this picture] but is afraid that once they are in Barcelona, already rolled, it will not be safe to unpack them.
E. Tériade. "Documentaire sur la jeune peinture, IV: La réaction littéraire." Cahiers d'art 5, no. 2 (1930), ill. p. 84, as "Paysage".
H[enry]. McB[ride]. "Attractions in the Galleries." Sun (January 18, 1936), p. 16.
Mary Morsell. "Matisse Display Vividly Reveals Modern Trends: Large Works by Eight Moderns Found in Notable Exhibition Ranging from Cubist Theory to Sheer Romanticism." Art News 34 (January 18, 1936), p. 5.
Elisabeth Luther Cary. "Paintings by Some of Our Older Modernists." New York Times (January 19, 1936), p. X9.
Dictionnaire abrégé du Surréalisme. Paris, 1938, ill. p. 49, as "Paysage".
Georges Hugnet. Surréalistische Schilderkunst: Inleiding bij de Internationale Tentoonstelling van het Surréalisme gehouden in de Galerie Robert Keizersgracht 527 te Amsterdam. Exh. cat., Galerie Robert. Amsterdam, 1938, fig. 7, as "Paysage".
Carlyle Burrows. "Notes and Comment on Events in Art." New York Herald Tribune (March 9, 1941), p. F8.
Edward Alden Jewell. "Unusual Art Show Opens at Museum." New York Times (April 2, 1947), p. 34.
T.[homas] B. H.[ess]. "Spotlight on: Miró." Art News 47 (April 1948), p. 33.
Howard Devree. "By Contemporaries: New Shows Give Long-Term Perspective On Picasso, Miro and Lasar Segall." New York Times (March 21, 1948), p. X8.
Jo Gibbs. "Surrealist Period Miró for Miró Fans." Art Digest 23 (May 1, 1949), p. 17, ill.
Clement Greenberg. Joan Miró. rev. ed. [1st ed., 1948]. New York, 1950, p. 130, pl. XVIII, locates it in the Pierre Matisse Gallery, New York.
William Rubin. "Miró in Retrospect." Art International 3, nos. 5–6 (1959), p. 37, notes that this picture has been on exhibit at the New Gallery [note in archive file: according to E. V. Thaw, the work hung in the New Gallery, but not in an exhibition].
Hilton Kramer. "Month in Review." Arts 33 (May 1959), p. 49, remarks that this painting "which the New Gallery has been showing, might well have been included" in the current MoMA Miró retrospective.
Katharine Kuh. Signposts of Twentieth Century Art. Exh. cat., Dallas Museum for Contemporary Arts. [Dallas], [1959], pp. 40–41, ill.
Jacques Dupin. Joan Miró: Life and Work. New York, [1962], pp. 175, 178, 180, 515, no. 182, ill., notes that Miró painted seven large paintings each during the summers of 1926 and 1927 in Montroig, all of which were exhibited at Georges Bernheim's gallery in 1928 [five landscapes and two figures in 1926: nos. 172–178; six landscapes and one figure in 1927: nos. 179–185].
Roland Penrose. Joan Miró. Exh. cat., Tate Gallery. London, 1964, p. 27, no. 72, pl. 13b.
Yves Bonnefoy. Miró. New York, 1967, pl. 23.
William S. Rubin. Dada and Surrealist Art. New York, [1968], pp. 160, 477, fig. 136.
William Rubin. Miró in the Collection of the Museum of Modern Art. New York, 1973, pp. 37, 118 n. 1.
Giuseppe Marchiori. "Miró through the Years." Homage to Joan Miró. Ed. G[ualtieri]. di San Lazzaro. (1st ed., Paris, 1972). New York, 1976, ill. p. 33, as "Landscape".
Angelica Zander Rudenstine. The Guggenheim Museum Collection: Paintings 1880–1945. New York, 1976, vol. 2, p. 525.
Margit Rowell, ed. Joan Miró: Selected Writings and Interviews. Boston, 1986, pp. 96, 312 n. 8 [revised French ed., Paris, 1995, pp. 108, 330 n. 9], identifies this painting among the seven large canvases mentioned by Miró as having been executed in the summer of 1927 [Ref. Trabal 1928].
Sabine Rewald inTwentieth-Century Modern Masters: The Jacques and Natasha Gelman Collection. Ed. William S. Lieberman. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1989, pp. 180–82, 307, ill. (color and bw), considers it the most ambiguous of the 1927 imaginary landscapes.
William S. Lieberman inTwentieth-Century Modern Masters: The Jacques and Natasha Gelman Collection. Ed. William S. Lieberman. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1989, p. 14, fig. 3 (color, installation photo).
Jacques Dupin inTwentieth-Century Modern Masters: The Jacques and Natasha Gelman Collection. Ed. William S. Lieberman. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1989, p. 49.
Dawn Ades inTwentieth-Century Modern Masters: The Jacques and Natasha Gelman Collection. Ed. William S. Lieberman. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1989, p. 42.
Harry Bellet inJoan Miró: Rétrospective de l'œuvre peint. Ed. Jean-Louis Prat. Exh. cat., Fondation Maeght, Saint-Paul-de-Vence. Paris, 1990, pp. 72–73, 200, no. 30, ill. (color).
Victoria Combalía inJoan Miró Centennial Exhibition: The Pierre Matisse Collection. Exh. cat., Yokohama Museum of Art. [Tokyo], 1992, p. 187.
Carolyn Lanchner. Joan Miró. Exh. cat., Museum of Modern Art. New York, 1993, pp. 49, 53, 80 n. 185, ill. p. 161 (color), dates it late July–December 1927; notes that "Painting (Untitled; The Bullfighter)" (1927; Musée d'Art Moderne, Villeneuve d'Ascq; DL 1999, no. 257) has been inserted into the upper left corner of this picture; asserts that the fourteen large paintings of the summers of 1926 and 1927 were all landscapes [see Ref. Dupin 1962].
Anne Umland in Carolyn Lanchner. Joan Miró. Exh. cat., Museum of Modern Art. New York, 1993, pp. 325–26.
Lilian Tone in Carolyn Lanchner. Joan Miró. Exh. cat., Museum of Modern Art. New York, 1993, p. 389, no. 71, ill.
Isabelle de Wavrin. "L'Œil infaillible de Jacques Gelman." Beaux Arts no. 125 (July-August 1994), pp. 46–47, ill. (color).
Patrick-Gilles Persin. "La Collection Jacques et Natasha Gelman." L'Œil no. 465 (October 1994), pp. 49–50, ill. (color).
Jacques Dupin and Ariane Lelong-Mainaud. Joan Miró: Catalogue raisonné. Paintings. Vol. 1, 1908–1930. [Paris], 1999, p. 171, no. 224, ill. (color), note that this work is signed, titled, and dated on the verso, but that these inscriptions are no longer visible because it was relined.
Stella Paul. Twentieth-Century Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art: A Resource for Educators. New York, 1999, pp. 59–61, ill. (detail and bw) and ill. p. 58 (color).
Roberta Smith. "In a Brash Yet Refined School, Everyone Belongs Together." New York Times (June 15, 2001), p. E37.
Agnès de la Beaumelle inJoan Miró, 1917–1934. Ed. Agnès de la Beaumelle. Exh. cat., Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris. London, 2004, pp. 331–34, 336–38, fig. 3 (p. 336) [installation photo of Exh. Paris 1928], fig. 2 (p. 339) [reproduction of Ref. Trabal 1928].
Rémi Labrusse. Miró: Un feu dans les ruines. Paris, 2004, pp. 105, 108, 190, 199, 211–12, fig. 17 (color).
Tomàs Llorens. Miró: Earth. Exh. cat., Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza. Madrid, 2008, pp. 80, 82–85, 91, fig. 19 (color), calls it the first and most complex of the six large-scale landscapes of summer 1927.
Joan Ainaud de Lasarte et al., ed. Epistolari Català Joan Miró: 1911–1945. Vol. 1, Barcelona, 2009, pp. 336–37.
Karen Wilkin. "Miró's 'Dutch Interiors'." New Criterion 29 (November 2010), p. 42.
Jacques Dupin. Miró. [1st ed., 1993]. Paris, 2012, pp. 131, 133, 138, fig. 138 (color).
Joan Miró (Spanish, Barcelona 1893–1983 Palma de Mallorca)
1931
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