Le lever du soleil (Sunrise)
Artist: Joan Miró (Spanish, 1893-1983)
Date: 1940
Dimensions:
painting: 14 7/8 x 17 15/16 in. (37.8 x 45.6 cm);
framed: 28 3/8 x 31 3/8 in. (72.1 x 79.7 cm)
Medium: gouache and oil
Classification: Paintings
Credit Line: Gift of Thomas T. Solley
Object number: 1996.16
Label Text:Sunrise at Varengeville is the first work of a series of 23 gouaches (opaque watercolors) collectively known as the Constellations. They were executed from January 1940 to September 1941—the most traumatic episode of Miró’s life. Sunrise was one out of ten that was painted in Varengeville, a small village in Normandy, where Miró escaped World War II. When the German army invaded France, he fled to Spain in May 1940 and settled in Palma de Mallorca until the end of the war. The artist remembered: “I was working clandestinely, but this was a liberation for me as I worked I was not thinking of the tragedy that surrounded me.”
The Constellations series is looked upon as one of Miró’s greatest achievements. The paintings were shown at the gallery of Pierre Matisse (artist Henri Matisse’s son) in New York in 1945. They were a revelation for the young generation of American painters like Jackson Pollock (1912–1956), who was amazed at “the all-over articulation.”
The Constellations series is looked upon as one of Miró’s greatest achievements. The paintings were shown at the gallery of Pierre Matisse (artist Henri Matisse’s son) in New York in 1945. They were a revelation for the young generation of American painters like Jackson Pollock (1912–1956), who was amazed at “the all-over articulation.”
Not on view
In Collection(s)