Joan Miro - Transparency 31.5 x 23.5

• Title: The Nightingale’s Song at Midnight and the Morning Rain (Le Chant du rossignol à minuit et la pluie matinale)
• Artist: Joan Miró (1893–1983)
• Date Completed: September 4, 1940
• Series: Constellations (Plate XI in the 23-gouache suite)
• Original Medium: Gouache, oil wash, and charcoal/graphite on paper
• Original Dimensions: Approximately 38 × 46 cm (15 × 18.1 in)
• Current Provenance / Location: Private Collection (formerly with Perls Galleries, New York)

Historical Context & The Constellations Series

1. Origin in Exile (Varengeville-sur-Mer): Miró began this series in early 1940 while living in the coastal village of Varengeville-sur-Mer in Normandy, France, escaping the Spanish Civil War and the oncoming invasion of France during World War II. As Nazi forces advanced, Miró fled back to Spain via Paris, carrying the unfinished papers with him to Palma de Mallorca and Mont-roig del Camp, where he completed the 23 works in late 1941.
2. Artistic Intent: Confronted by wartime devastation, Miró deliberately turned inward and upward toward the night sky. In his own words, he was looking for “an escape from the tragedy of the world” into an intimate, ordered cosmos governed by poetry and music.
3. Symbolism & Visual Language:
• Cosmic Network: Miró textured the paper with washes and scraped pigment, then laid down a complex web of fine, calligraphic black lines connecting circular and biomorphic shapes.
• Figures & Celestial Bodies: Stylized stars, moons, eyes, hour-glass figures, and a bird/nightingale motif populate the field, accented with flat primary and secondary colors (red, blue, yellow, green).

Poster & Publication Details

• Publisher / Distributor: The margins of this specific print identify it as an offset lithographic art print published by Verkerke Reprodukties (Ede, Holland) under license.
• Print Title in Distribution: Often cataloged in European print distributions under generic series names such as "Transparency" or "Constellation" alongside the facsimile of Miró’s signature.
• Sheet Dimensions: 31.5 × 23.5 in (80 × 60 cm standard vintage poster format).