Head of a Catalan Peasant

1924

Joan Miró

Artist, Spanish, 1893 - 1983

Two thin, black, straight lines create a cross above a band of widely spaced, vertical, wavy lines, all against a golden yellow background in this abstract, vertical painting. The cross and the band of wavy lines at its base nearly fill this canvas. Each end of the horizontal line of the cross ends with a black disk. Three crimson-red lines emanate like rays from the sides of each disk. The top of the vertical line of the cross ends with a scarlet-red form that flares into a straight line across the bottom and curves up and over, to our left. That shape is outlined in red and partially filled in with the same color at the curving end. At the bottom of the cross, seven vertical wavy lines are spaced along a horizontal line, all in maroon red. A turquoise-blue star floats over the black disk to our right, and three curved lines in blue, yellow, and red arch in a short, stylized rainbow near the upper right of the painting. The background is mottled with tan and ochre yellow, and speckled with topaz-blue dots mostly in the upper left and the lower right corners. The artist signed and dated the work in tiny letters near the lower right: “Miró 1924.”
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On View

East Building Upper Level, Gallery 415-C

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil and crayon on canvas

  • Credit Line

    Gift of the Collectors Committee

  • Dimensions

    overall: 146 x 114.2 cm (57 1/2 x 44 15/16 in.)
    framed: 175.9 x 143.5 x 10.1 cm (69 1/4 x 56 1/2 x 4 in.)

  • Accession

    1981.9.1

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

(Galerie Pierre, Paris), by October 1934.[1] private collection, Switzerland. (Galerie Marie-Louise Jeanneret, Geneva). (Paul Haim, Paris); purchased 1980 by (Acquavella Galleries, New York);[2] purchased 10 February 1981 by NGA.
[1] Carolyn Lanchner, Joan Miró, exh. cat. The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1993: 378, no. 39, gives this date, likely because Galerie Pierre lent the painting to an exhibition at the Kunsthaus Zurich that opened then. Galerie Pierre also lent the painting to the 1936 International Surrealist exhibition, but Pierre Loeb closed his gallery in 1939 and did not re-open it until 1945. It is not yet known when the painting left his possession and was acquired by the Swiss private collection.
[2] This information was provided by Acquavella Galleries in July 2004 (see notes of a phone conversation between Acquavella Galleries and NGA intern Jennifer Sudul, in NGA curatorial files).
.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1934

  • Probably Ausstellung [an exhibition of work by Arp, Ernst, Giacometti, González, and Miró], Kunsthaus Zürich, 1934, no. 86.

1936

  • International Surrealist Exhibition, New Burlington Galleries, London, 1936, no. 210.

1980

  • XIX & XX Century Master Paintings, Acquavella Galleries, Inc., New York, 1980, no. 13, color repro.

1982

  • Miró in Ameria, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 1982, unnumbered catalogue, pl. 5.

1993

  • Joan Miró: 1893-1993, Fundacio Joan Miró, Barcelona, 1993, no. 62, repro.

  • Joan Miró: Campo de Estrellas, Museo Nacional Centro de arte Reina Sofia, Madrid, 1993, no. 7, repro.

  • Joan Miró, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1993-1994, no. 39, repro.

1997

  • Joan Miró: Campesino catalán con guitarra, 1924, Fundación Colección Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, 1997-1998, no. 1, repro.

1998

  • Joan Miró, Moderna Museet, Stockholm; Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebaek, Denmark, 1998-1999, no. 17, repro.

2004

  • Joan Miró 1917-1934: La Naissance du Monde [Joan Miró 1917-1934: The Birth of the World], Musée national d'art moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, 2004, no. 58, repro.

2008

  • La invención del siglo XX. Carl Einstein y las vanguardias [The Invention of the 20th Century. Carl Einstein and the Avant-garde], Museo Nacional Central de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid, 2008-2009, no. 95, repro.

  • Miró: la tierra [Miro: the Earth], Exhibit Halls, Palazzo dei Diamanti, Ferrara; Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, 2008, no. 13, repro.

2011

  • Joan Miró: The Ladder of Escape, Tate, London; Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 2011-2012, no. 29, repro.

Bibliography

1962

  • Dupin, Jacques. Miró. New York, 1962: 162, 166.

1985

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 270, repro.

1989

  • Kramer, Hilton. "Modern Art at the National Gallery." The New Criterion 7, no. 8 (April 1989): 3.

  • Strick, Jeremy. Twentieth Century Painting and Sculpture: Selections for the Tenth Anniversary of the East Building. Washington, D.C., 1989: 40, repro. 41.

2000

  • Kirsh, Andrea, and Rustin S. Levenson. Seeing Through Paintings: Physical Examination in Art Historical Studies. Materials and Meaning in the Fine Arts 1. New Haven, 2000: 264.

2009

  • Cooper, Harry. The Robert and Jane Meyerhoff Collection: Selected Works. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 2009: 10, repro.

Inscriptions

lower right: Miro / 1924; on reverse: Joan Miro, Tete de Paysan Catalan, 1924

Wikidata ID

Q20192483

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