There is something rather wonderful about an image made in March 1938 still looking this unruly.
Miró’s L’Été is a riot of primary colour and peculiar life: a blazing yellow sky, a strip of impossible blue sea and a landscape of red and black, populated by creatures that seem caught somewhere between people, animals, dreams and mild hallucination. One waves a great red hand in the air; another, horned and wonderfully disgruntled, sits at its feet. A crescent moon hangs overhead. It is funny, slightly menacing and unmistakably Miró.
The work was made for the third issue of Verve, the remarkable Parisian art review founded by the publisher and critic Tériade. Artists were invited to create works around the four seasons, with Miró taking summer. Rather than reproducing an existing painting in the conventional sense, these were conceived as serious works of graphic art for the publication — part of Tériade's rather radical idea that important modern art needn't be confined to a gallery wall.
This impression is an original colour pochoir on wove paper, printed in Paris by Daniel Jacomet and published by Tériade in 1938. It is recorded in the Miró catalogue raisonné as Dupin 1310. Although the work was historically described as a lithograph — and continues to be catalogued as lithograph and pochoir by some dealers — later scholarship identifies the printing process as pochoir and Jacomet as its printer.
The technique goes some way to explaining the extraordinary immediacy of the colour. Pochoir uses individually cut stencils to apply areas of pigment, giving the surface a density and flatness much closer to painting than ordinary mechanical reproduction. Here the reds, yellow, ultramarine, green and black remain remarkably direct: great blocks of colour held together by Miró's spidery lines and strange, beautifully economical forms.
And then there is the reverse. Printed on the verso is Miró's wonderfully loose calligraphic design incorporating his name, “Mars 1938” and the title “L'été” — an integral and particularly lovely part of the original publication which, now framed, is normally hidden from view. Documented impressions of Dupin 1310 carry this verso, providing a useful further point of identification for the present example. The approximately 35 × 26 cm visible sheet size also corresponds closely with recorded examples, which are around 35–35.5 × 26–26.5 cm.
The little miró at the lower left is printed within the composition rather than signed later in pencil, as is correct for this edition. It is worth making that distinction: this isn't a later poster or reproduction carrying a facsimile signature, but a period Miró graphic produced and published in Paris in 1938.
Perhaps the best thing about it is that none of this history is required to enjoy it. Eighty-eight years later, it remains wonderfully alive — joyful at first glance, considerably stranger at the second.
Presented in a substantial ebonised timber frame with deep black mount and glazed front.
Dimensions
Visible artwork: approximately 35 × 26 cm
Overall framed dimensions: 55.5 x 45 cm
Condition
The work presents very well, with strong, vivid colour and minor age-related variation commensurate with a work on paper dating from 1938. The printed Miró signature is visible at the lower left. The original printed design, title and date remain present to the reverse, as photographed prior to framing.
The painted timber frame displays minor marks and surface wear. Glazed. Please refer to the photographs for detail.
Reference
Joan Miró, L’Été (Summer), 1938
Colour pochoir on wove paper
Published by Tériade, Paris, for Verve, Vol. I, No. 3
Printed by Daniel Jacomet, Paris
Signed in the composition
Catalogue raisonné: Dupin 1310
Delivery
Qualifies as a smaller item. UK delivery via insured courier/FedEx at checkout; international shipping available—ask for a quote.
