Joan Miro - Personnages et Montagnes 15.75 x 19.75

• Title: Personnages et montagnes (English: Figures and Mountains)
• Artist: Joan Miró (Spanish/Catalan, 1893–1983)
• Date of Execution: May 11–22, 1936
• Medium & Support: Tempera on Masonite
• Catalogue Raisonné Reference: Dupin & Lelong-Mainaud, Joan Miró: Paintings 1931–1941, Vol. II, No. 509
• Current Location / Collection: United States, private collection

Historical & Stylistic Context

1. The "Wild Paintings" (Peintures Sauvages), 1934–1936:
• Painted in May 1936, just two months before the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War (July 1936).
• During this pivotal pre-war period, Miró departed from the lighter, lyrical dreamscapes of the late 1920s to produce intensely visceral, anxious, and aggressive compositions.
• The human figures are transformed into grotesque, biomorphic apparitions with claw-like appendages, oversized heads, grimacing expressions, and distorted sexualized anatomy against dramatic landscape forms.
2. Palette & Support Experimentation:
• In 1935–1936, Miró actively abandoned traditional canvas in favor of non-traditional industrial supports, executing distinct series on copper plates, cardboard, and rough Masonite boards.
• Personnages et montagnes utilizes a high-contrast primary palette dominated by acidic yellow, cadmium red, deep ultramarine blue, and textured malachite/foliage green, underscored by heavy black contouring and shading.

Specific Print / Edition Details

• Print Series: Maestri della Pittura (Italian: Masters of Painting)
• Publisher / Printer: Published in Milan, Italy by EGIM S.r.l. under license and copyright authorization from the Successió Miró / SIAE.
• Marginal Inscription:
• Bottom Left: MAESTRI DELLA PITTURA – N. [Cat. No.] – J. Miró – [...] 1936 / Personnages et montagnes, 1936
• Bottom Right: EGIM S.r.l. Milano publication, copyright, and printing credits.

Sheet Size: 15.75 × 19.75 in (approx. 40 × 50 cm), standard mini-poster / collector folio