Inscription: Signed (bottom center): Miró; signed, dated, and inscribed (verso): Joan Miró / *Femmes sur la plage* / Varengeville s / mer / 15/II/1940
the artist (1940–45; sold in 1945 to Matisse); Pierre Matisse, New York (1945–68; sold on April 8, 1968 to Gelman); Jacques and Natasha Gelman, Mexico City and New York (1968–his d. 1986); Natasha Gelman, Mexico City and New York (1986–d. 1998; her bequest to MMA)
New York. Pierre Matisse Gallery. "Joan Miró: Ceramics 1944, Tempera Paintings 1940 to 1941, Lithographs 1944," January 9–February 3, 1945, no. 4 (as "Femmes sur la plage") [sixteen gouaches were exhibited at any one time, on rotating view; see Ref. Lanchner 1993, p. 82 n. 292].
Venice. Palazzo Centrale. "XXVII Biennale," June 19–October 17, 1954, no. 17 (Sala XLVI; as "Donne sulla spiaggia," lent by the Pierre Matisse Gallery, New York).
Paris. Berggruen et Cie. "Joan Miró: Constellations," January 20–March 1959, not in catalogue.
New York. Pierre Matisse Gallery. "Constellations," March 17–April 11, 1959, brochure no. 4 (as "Femmes sur la plage," lent by Mr. Pierre Matisse, New York).
Los Angeles County Museum. "Joan Miró," June 10–July 21, 1959, brochure no. 75 (as "Women on the Beach," lent by the Pierre Matisse Gallery, New York).
Tate Gallery, London. "Joan Miró," August 27–October 11, 1964, no. 168 (lent by the Pierre Matisse Gallery, New York).
Kunsthaus Zürich. "Joan Miró," October 31–December 6, 1964, no. 168.
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. 219).
London. Royal Academy of Arts. "Twentieth-Century Modern Masters: The Jacques and Natasha Gelman Collection," April 19–July 15, 1990, unnumbered cat.
Museum of Modern Art, New York. "Joan Miró," October 17, 1993–January 11, 1994, no. 159 (as "Women on the Beach." From the Constellation series).
Martigny. Fondation Pierre Gianadda. "De Matisse à Picasso: Collection Jacques et Natasha Gelman," June 18–November 1, 1994, unnumbered cat. (p. 243).
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. 30.
New York. Acquavella Galleries. "Miró Constellations," April 20–May 26, 2017, unnumbered cat. (pl. 4; as "Femmes sur la plage [Women on the Beach]").
Edward Alden Jewell. "Art: Diverse Shows." New York Times (January 14, 1945), p. X8 (on the Constellation series), describes the "tempera paintings" currently on view at the Pierre Matisse Gallery as resembling constellations.
Maude Riley. "New Temperas and Ceramics by Miro." Art Digest 19 (January 1, 1945), p. 13 (on the Constellation series).
"The Passing Shows." Art News 43 (January 15–31, 1945), p. 27 (on the Constellation series).
James Johnson Sweeney. "Miro's Modern Magic." Town & Country 100 (April 1945), pp. 93, 126–27 (on the Constellation series).
"Heard at the Galleries." Pictures on Exhibit 6 (January 1945), pp. 14, 16 (on the Constellation series), describes the series as "suggesting constellations of shining jewels hung on a delicately thin black thread gracefully winding through space".
André Breton. "Constellations de Joan Miró." L'Oeil no. 48 (December 1958), pp. 51–52, 55, ill., lists it in the collection of Pierre Matisse, New York.
André Breton. Constellations. New York, 1959, colorpl. 4 [English translation published in Ref. Hammond 2000].
Jacques Dupin. Joan Miró: Life and Work. New York, [1962], pp. 346, 356–58, 360, 541, no. 541, ill., locates it in the Pierre Matisse Gallery, New York.
Gene Baro. "Miró: A Leap in the Air." Arts Magazine 39 (October 1964), p. 38, ill. p. 43.
Roland Penrose. Joan Miró. Exh. cat., Tate Gallery. London, 1964, pp. 9, 40–41, no. 168.
James Burr. "Round the London Galleries: The Catalan Magician." Apollo 80 (September 1964), pp. 238–39, fig. 1.
Renée Riese Hubert. "Miró and Breton." Yale French Studies no. 31 (1964), pp. 54, 56, 59, calls it "Woman on the Beach," in the Pierre Matisse Gallery, New York.
Margit Rowell. Joan Mirò: Peinture=poésie. [Paris], 1976, pp. 71, 75, 77.
Joan Teixidor. "'Constellations'." Homage to Joan Miró. Ed. G[ualtieri]. di San Lazzaro. (1st ed., Paris, 1972). New York, 1976, pp. 42, 44–45.
Joan Miró. "Ceci est la couleur de mes rêves": Entretiens avec Georges Raillard. Paris, 1977, p. 89.
Lluis Permanyer. "Revelaciones de Joan Miró sobre su obra." Gaceta Ilustrada (April 23, 1978), pp. 45–46 [English translation published in Ref. Rowell 1986, pp. 294–95].
J. H. Matthews. "André Breton and Joan Miró: 'Constellations'." Symposium 34 (Winter 1980–81), pp. 355–60, 363–65, 369.
Margit Rowell, ed. Joan Miró: Selected Writings and Interviews. Boston, 1986, pp. 294–95.
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. 218–22, 308, ill. (color, recto and verso, and bw).
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. 4 (color, installation photo, Gelman apartment).
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.
Georges Raillard. Miró. Paris, 1989, pp. 110–11, ill. (color).
Carolyn Lanchner. Joan Miró. Exh. cat., Museum of Modern Art. New York, 1993, pp. 29, 37, 70–71, ill. p. 241 (color).
Anne Umland in Carolyn Lanchner. Joan Miró. Exh. cat., Museum of Modern Art. New York, 1993, pp. 335, 337.
Lilian Tone in Carolyn Lanchner. Joan Miró. Exh. cat., Museum of Modern Art. New York, 1993, pp. 416–17, no. 159, ill.
John Golding. "Sophisticated Peasant." New York Review of Books 40 (December 16, 1993), ill. p. 46.
Lilian Tone. "The Journey of Miró's Constellations." MoMA no. 15 (Autumn 1993), p. 4.
Jacques Dupin and Ariane Lelong-Mainaud. Joan Miró: Catalogue raisonné. Paintings. Vol. 2, 1931–1941. [Paris], 2000, p. 235, no. 631, ill. (color).
Paul Hammond. Constellations of Miró, Breton. San Francisco, 2000, pp. 81, 202–3, no. 4, ill.
Alessandra Carnielli and Margaret Loudon inPierre Matisse and His Artists. Exh. cat., Pierpont Morgan Library. New York, 2002, ill. p. 245 (installation photo, Exh. New York 1959).
Miguel Orozco. La Odisea de Miró y sus "Constelaciones": El pintor y sus marchantes. Madrid, [2016], pp. 126, 212, 225–26, 249.
Margit Rowell inMiró Constellations. Exh. cat., Acquavella Galleries. New York, 2017, p. 36, colorpl. 4.
Joan Miró (Spanish, Barcelona 1893–1983 Palma de Mallorca)
1938
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