Joan Miró

Pierre Matisse Gallery, New York
Dr. & Mrs. Renato J. Almansi, New York
Private Collection, Virginia
Private Collection, Maryland (by descent from the above)
Grosvenor Fine Arts, Ltd, London (acquired in 2008)
Acquired from the above in 2009 

Jacques Dupin & Ariane Lelong-Mainaud, Joan Miró, Catalogue Raisonné. Drawings, vol. I, Paris, 2008, no. 617, illlustrated in color p. 298

Executed on cream wove paper. T-hinged to a mount at two places along the top edge. Sheet is rubbed in the lighter areas -- this is inherent to the artist's process. Extreme edges of top two corners are rounded. 1/4 inch repaired tear below the center of the top edge. Tiny nick at right edge above center. Studio stains visible on the verso. Colors are bright and fresh and work is in very good condition.
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Figures et chien is a striking example of Miró's reaction to the mounting violence and impending Civil War which was soon to dominate Spain. Executed in late May of 1936, shortly before the artist's exile to France because of political hostility, the picture seems to reflect, in its ambiguous and unsettling exploration of human degeneration, the artist's experience of society on the brink of chaos.

The simple, two-dimensional composition, and its rejection of all modeling and detail in favor of summary brushstrokes, echo the artist's general distaste for "traditional" styles of painting and predict his shift towards greater abstraction in subsequent years. The lack of physical detail afforded to the figures also gives the picture a psychological intensity, allowing us to interpret, on a variety of levels, the apparent metamorphosis of human into animal.

There is a playful aspect to this picture, however, which separates it from some of the more barbaric symbols that characterized the artist's later work as the Spanish Civil War reached its peak. The organic, bold and somewhat comic curves of the figures, and their strong stances against a background of loose brushstrokes evoke Miró's love of folk art, which he once described as being "so rich in possibilities" (Fundació Joan Miró, Joan Miró, 1893-1993, Barcelona, 1993, p. 424).

Miró's ability to create a blend of turmoil and optimism seems to lend this picture a great feeling of unease, expectation and perhaps even prophecy. As Jacques Dupin has rightly noted, "It is as though the Spanish tragedy and the Second World War as well... broke out first in the works of this Catalan artist" (Jacques Dupin, Joan Miró: Life and Work, London, 1962, p. 264).