Joan MIRÓ (1893-1983). - Lot 146

Joan MIRÓ (1893-1983). The Sun, Mallorca (recto) & Constellation - 19/IV/72 (verso) - drawing commissioned by the Fomento de Turismo Español, to promote the island of Mallorca. Double-sided work: ink, gouache and graphite, on oval-cut paper. Signed lower right on each side; dated on reverse. H_39 cm L_45,2 cm A certificate of authenticity from ADOM (Association pour la défense de l'œuvre de Joan Miró - Successió Miró) dated February 19, 2026 will be given to the buyer. Provenance: former collection of Edmond Vernassa (1926-2010), a visual artist from the Ecole de Nice and industrialist from Nice (renowned for his plastics workshop specializing in the manufacture of Plexiglas under the name "Plexi Azur"). Our three recovered drawings by Joan Miró were kept in the artist's studio, among his personal works and projects. Vernassa met Miró in the early 1970s, in the company of the Maeght couple, for whom he worked and drew regularly. The authenticity of this drawing has been confirmed by Madame Ariane Lelong-Mainaud, co-author of the Catalogues Raisonnés of Joan Miró's paintings and drawings and a member of the ADOM committee. We have several photographs of Edmond Vernassa, with Joan Miró, Aimé and Marguerite Maeght, in his Plexi Azur studio. Here we see Miró seated, busy drawing, under Vernassa's admiring eye. We still have many photographs of the Maeght couple with Vernassa, notably at the opening of the Vernassa exhibition at Jean Ferrero's Place Ile de Beauté in Nice in 1974. Note : Our drawing was reproduced on 100,000 posters promoting Mallorcan tourism, and was also used by Joan Miró in sculpture and medals. One example, in metal, is kept at the Es Baluard Museu d'Art Contemporani in Palma. The posters - published by the Consejo del Fomento de Turismo, Palma de Mallorca, and printed by La Poligrafa S.A., Barcelona - feature The Sun in its first composition, surrounded by a constellation of circles and stars, marked "Mallorca". The poster was exhibited several times throughout Europe in the 1970s, as an example of a remarkable graphic work. Miró later modified the design to the oval we see today. The work was simplified, using white gouache, and offered to Edmond Vernassa, who produced color tests in Plexiglas (a copy of which was found in the studio). In 1956, Miró settled permanently in Palma de Mallorca and finally realized his long-held dream of building a large studio in which to work. He was approaching the age of 80 when he created Le Soleil, which would be produced in a hundred thousand posters, delivering his interpretation of the sun and the beauty of the island of Mallorca with a highly identifiable pictorial language. Miró's friend and biographer Jacques Dupin writes that the artist "had reached such a degree of success and elation, or freedom and detachment, that it seemed absurd and even 'sterile' to try to invent new figures and renew old themes. The recurrent representation of a woman and a bird, a star, the sun and the moon [...] confirmed that the importance of the theme was now secondary to the sign. [Hidden or fleeting elements have lost their place, and there is no longer any need to decipher these works. For they have become sovereign and pure acts, bursting with an obviousness that the painter has achieved only at the cost of an infinite series of interruptions and ruptures...". The Sun is the embodiment of the Balearic island for Miró, who uses the symbols of the bird and the radiance to express his unwavering attachment to Mallorca, and to Spain. Bibliography: - Camilo José Cela and Pere A. Serra, Miró et Mallorca, Paris, Aux Editions Cercle d'Art, 1984, our drawing ovalized but not yet modified in white gouache reproduced p. 200, no. 271, the sculpture Le Soleil reproduced as no. 272, the poster version reproduced as no. 273 and on the back cover. - Mallorca Fundacio Pila i Joan Miro, Palma Territori Miro: 475 works from the collection a Mallorca Foundation from 23 of June to 25 of August 1996, 1996, poster reproduced under no. 89. - Ralph Herrmanns, Affischer av. Miró, Stockholm, A.H.-Grafik, 1974, poster reproduced p. 71, no. 66. - Catalog of the exhibition "Miró, l'œuvre graphique", Musée d'art moderne de la ville de Paris, 1974, poster reproduced p. 147, no. 596. - Jacques Dupin, Miró, New York, 1983, full quotation p. 340.