Joan Miró
Et les Seins Mouraient…
Date 1927
Medium Indian ink on cardboard
Dimensions 47 x 62 cm
Inventory ID UID 102-384
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This drawing is a study for the frontispiece of an eponymous anthology of poems by Benjamin Péret, published by Les Cahiers du Sud in Marseille (printed on 15 January 1929). This study does not correspond to the drawing that was published. In the printed version, Joan Miró maintained the principle of using black and white, with the four handwritten words of the title playing in the space. But he had to correct it, to adapt it to the shape of the book, which was narrower and more elongated. As such, the drawing in the Berardo Collection is presented as a first sketch. Benjamin Péret and Miró had known each other since the painter’s meeting with the surrealists in 1925, perhaps even longer, through the intermediary of André Masson. Péret, born in 1899, became friends with André Breton in 1920 and thus took part in the birth of the surrealist movement and all the group’s activities. Of all the surrealist poets, he must have been the one who practised automatic writing with the greatest fervour and spontaneity. His first anthology of poems, Le Passager du Transatlantique, was published in 1921 with xylographs by Hans Arp. It was followed by Immortelle maladie, in 1924, with a frontispiece by Man Ray, and Dormir, dormir dans les pierres, in 1927, with drawings by Yves Tanguy. AC
Private collection; Galeria Tega, Milan; acquired in 1997.