Maternité by Miró

Painting by Joan Miró, (1893 - 1983) Maternité (Maternity), 1924 (oil on canvas, 92.1 x 73.1). Miró was born in Barcelona and moved to Paris in 1920. In Paris he abandoned Cubism and began to paint an imaginary world full of strange, insect-like figures floating in space. This fantastic sign language, which was partly inspired by dreams, soon became a hallmark of Surrealist art. The transformation took place in 1924 and may be seen in Maternity, an early Surrealist masterpiece. It was probably painted in the summer or autumn of 1924 at Montroig, near Barcelona, where Miró’s parents had a country home. In August Miró wrote to a friend saying that ‘My latest canvases are conceived like a bolt from the blue, absolutely detached from the outer world (the world of men who have two eyes in the space below the forehead).’ From the Collection of Sir Roland Penrose.