Joan Miró

Pierre Matisse Gallery, New York 
Perls Galleries, New York 
Private Collection, Florida (and sold: Sotheby's, New York, May 2, 1996, lot 306) 
Acquired at the above sale

New York, Perls Galleries, The Perls Galleries Collection of Modern French Paintings, 1955, no. 133 (illustrated in the catalogue n.p.)

Jacques Dupin, Joan Miró: His Life and Work, New York, 1962, no. 674, illustrated p. 511
Jacques Dupin, Joan Miró, Catalogue raisonné. Paintings, vol. III,  Argenton-sur-Creuse, 2001, no. 772, illustrated p. 19 

The work is in very good condition. The canvas has not been lined, and it has been affixed to a mount at several points along the perimeter of its reverse. The extreme edges are somewhat uneven but in good, stable condition. Three small spots of dark discoloration are visible toward the extreme bottom left corner. A 1.5 by 3-inch rectangular region toward upper right is faintly lighter than the remainder of the composition, corresponding with a window in the mount where the signature is visible on the reverse. The pigments are bright and fresh. Under UV light: no inpainting is apparent.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Enfants, cerf-volant, étoile is one of the compositions which Miró completed in the late years of the war. This jewel-like picture is populated by Miró's playful Surrealist characters that came to dominate his art at this time—children flying a kite aloft in the night sky. Miró gave up his practice of assigning poetic or elusive titles to his pictures as he had done in the 1930s, and now he favored more straight-forward classifications for his work. Women, children, birds, stars and moons festooned these pictures, but the artist did not compromise his imaginative impulses when rendering these forms. In fact, it was these compositions from the mid-1940s that would inspire the creative production of the Abstract Expressionist artist Arshile Gorky in New York. After his trip to America in 1947, Miró himself would respond to the style of the Abstract Expressionists and begin a series of large-format paintings. During these years he made a virtue of these small-format, intensely colorful canvases, with their splendor and precision.

Miró completed Enfants, cerf-volant, étoile in Barcelona in 1945, a year after after setting up his studio in the house where he was born. He had spent the duration of the war prior to this period in Palma de Mallorca, where he completed his celebrated Constellations series as homage to the brilliant night sky above the Mediterranean. Miró continued to incorporate elements of this theme into his production for the next several decades, concentrating on the elegance of calligraphic lines punctuated by bursts of primary colors. But it is in the compositions from the 1940s that this aesthetic is at its freshest and most inspired.