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A tomato-red, oval floating in a field of blue-violet nearly fills this horizontal abstract painting. A thin, vertical, gently waving line and a black dot float near the red oval, near the upper right corner of the canvas. The red oval is wider at our right side, like an egg. The oval, wavy line, and the dot are all outlined in white. The blue-violet background is painted with short, visible strokes, giving it a mottled look.

Joan Miró

Flight of the Dragonfly in Front of the Sun, 1968

East Building, Tower Level — Gallery 606

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions

overall: 173.9 x 243.8 cm (68 7/16 x 96 in.)

framed: 175.9 x 245.8 cm (69 1/4 x 96 3/4 in.)

Credit Line

Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon

Accession Number

1983.1.23

Artists / Makers

Joan Miró (artist) Spanish, 1893 - 1983

Image Use

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Inscription

on reverse:~MIRO 26/I/68 / LE VOL DE LA / LIBELLULE / DEVANT LE / SOLEIL; NO. 119~

Provenance

(Galerie Maeght, Zürich); purchased May 1974 by Paul Mellon, Upperville, Virginia; gift 1983 to NGA.

Associated Names

Mellon, Paul

Exhibition History

1995: Mit dem auge des kindes: Kinderzeichnung und moderne Kunst [The Innocent Eye: Children's Art and the Modern Artist], Stadtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich; Kunstmuseum Bern, 1995, no. 6.17, repro.

2006: Joan Miró, 1956-1983. Sentiment, emoció, gest, Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona, 2006-2007, unnumbered catalogue, repro.

2011: Joan Miró: The Ladder of Escape, Tate, London; Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 2011-2012, not in catalogue (shown only in Washington).

Bibliography

1985: European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 271, repro.

1989: Strick, Jeremy. Twentieth Century Painting and Sculpture: Selections for the Tenth Anniversary of the East Building. Washington, D.C., 1989: repro. 112, 113.