Joan Miró Ferra was born on April 20, 1893, in Barcelona. At the age of 14, he went to business school in Barcelona and also attended La Lonja, the academy of fine arts, the same city. Upon completing three years of art studies, he took a position as a clerk. After suffering a nervous breakdown, he abandoned business and resumed his art studies, attending Francesc Galí’s Escola d’Art in Barcelona from 1912 to 1915. In 1917, he met Francis Picabia and the following year, the dealer José Dalmau gave him his first solo show at his gallery in Barcelona.
n 1920, Miró made his first trip to Paris, where he met Pablo Picasso. From this time, Miró divided his time between Paris and Montroig, Spain. In Paris, he associated with the poets Max Jacob, Pierre Reverdy, and Tristan Tzara and participated in Dada activities. Dalmau organized Miró’s first solo show in Paris, at the Galerie La Licorne in 1921. His work was included in the Salon d’Automne of 1923. In 1924, Miró joined the Surrealist group. His solo show at the Galerie Pierre, Paris, in 1925 was a major Surrealist event; Miró was included in the first Surrealist exhibition at the Galerie Pierre that same year. He visited the Netherlands in 1928 and began a series of paintings inspired by Dutch masters. That year he also executed his first papiers collés and collages. In 1929, he started his experiments in lithography, and his first etchings date from 1933. During the early 1930s, he made Surrealist sculptures incorporating painted stones and found objects. In 1936, Miró left Spain because of the civil war; he returned in 1941.
Miró’s first major museum retrospective was held at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, in 1941. That year, Miró began working in ceramics with Josep Lloréns y Artigas and started to concentrate on prints; from 1954 to 1958, he worked almost exclusively in these two mediums. In 1958, Miró was given a Guggenheim International Award for his murals for the UNESCO building in Paris. The following year, he resumed painting, initiating a series of mural-sized canvases. During the 1960s, he began to work intensively in sculpture. Miró retrospective took place at the Grand Palais, Paris, in 1974. In 1978, the Musée National d’Art Moderne exhibited over 500 works in a major retrospective of his drawings. Miró died on December 25, 1983, in Palma de Mallorca, Spain.
Biography from Guggenheim Museums
Note: All works © 2025 Successió Miró / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris
This is part 2 of a 13-part series on the works of Joan Miró:
1928 Dutch Interior (I)
Dutch Interior (I) is based on a seventeenth century painting by Hendrick Martensz Sorgh depicting a lute player in a domestic interior. Miró bought a postcard reproduction of the work at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam a few months prior to beginning his painting. "I had the postcard pinned up on my easel while I painted," Miró reported. In bold, flat colors that rejected the naturalistic modeling and perspective of seventeenth–century Dutch painting, Miró greatly accentuated some elements of Sorgh’s composition, the lute and the man’s head and ruffled collar in particular, while diminishing others.
MoMA, New York
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| 1928 Dutch Interior (1) oil on canvas 91.8 x 73 cm MoMA New York |
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| The Lutenist by Hendrick Martensz Sorgh, painted 1661 oil on panel 51.5 x 38.5 cm Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| 1928 Study for Dutch Interior (1) pencil and white chalk on paper 15.3 x 11.8 cm MoMA New York |
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| 1928 Study for Dutch Interior (1) charcoal and pencil on paper 62.6 x 47.3 cm MoMA New York |
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| published 1928 Once There Was a Little Magpie illustrated book with eight pochoirs page size 32.4 x 25.2 cm MoMA New York |
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| 1928 Dutch Interior II oil on canvas 92 x 73 cm Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York |
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| 1929 Untitled gouache and charcoal on paper 71.8 x 108 cm Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona, Spain |
1929 Untitled collage of cut and pasted papers
Untitled is one of 22 large-scale chromatically austere collages Miró made between July and November 1929. In these works, he kept his drawn lines to a minimum. Miró described his collages as “drawings with new explorations into substance,” and as “training exercises, shadowboxing, so as to hit harder and harder, in a tougher and more energetic way.”
Art Institute of Chicago, IL
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| 1929 Untitled collage of cut and pasted papers (including flocked paper), and black Conté crayon, with touches of white gouache, pen and black ink, and traces of graphite, on cream wove paper 659 x 98.9 cm The Art Institute of Chicago, IL |
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| 1929 Collage conté crayon, gouache, ink, flocked paper, newspaper, abrasive cloth, and various papers on flocked paper 72.7 x 108.4 cm MoMA New York |
1929 Portrait of Mistress Mills in 1750
This painting takes its cues from an eighteenth–century British portrait by George Engleheart of the singer and actress Mrs. Isabella Mills, humorously recast by Miró’s title as "Mistress" rather than "Mrs." The figure and background are painted in vivid hues, which fundamentally differ from the naturalistically rendered forms in the original portrait. As with the Dutch Interiors, here Miró rejected the naturalism of his source imagery, aggressively simplifying and distorting it.
MoMA, New York
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| 1929 Portrait of Mistress Mills in 1750 oil on canvas 116.7 x 89.6 cm MoMA New York |
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| c1929 Study for Portrait of Mistress Mills in 1750 graphite pencil on lined paper 21.7 x 16.7 cm MoMA New York |
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| 1929 Study for Portrait of Mistress Mills in 1750 graphite pencil on lined paper 13.4 x 10.8 cm MoMA New York |
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| 1930 Lithograph 2 published 1973 56 x 45.1 cm |
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| 1930 Study black crayon on cream laid paper 62.5 x 46.5 cm The Art Institute of Chicago, IL |
1930 Relief Construction
This work is one of two of Miró's 1930 wood and metal constructions that are known to have survived. These constructions were made from pieces of wood that could easily have been found at a carpentry shop. Sharp nails are hammered through the red wooden circle at the top left of this composition. Their tips aim outward in an aggressive challenge to traditional artistry and figuration.
MoMA, New York
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| 1930 Relief Construction oil on wood, nails, staples, and metal on wood panel 91.1 x 70.2 x 16.2 cm MoMA New York |
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| 1930 Lithograph I 24.1 x 32 cm (plate) MoMA New York |
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| 1930 printed 1973 Lithograph III 56 x 45.1 cm |
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| 1931 Seated woman oil on paper 63 x 46 cm Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona, Spain |
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| 1931 Painting gouache and pastel on paper 63 x 46 cm Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona, Spain |
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| 1931 Object oil on wood, nails, string, bone, and chickpea 40 x 29.7 x 22 cm MoMA New York |
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| 1931 Group of figures in the forest oil on canvas 33 x 41 cm Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona, Spain |
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| 1931 Composition with figures in the burnt forest oil on canvas 81 x 100 cm Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona, Spain |
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| 1932 Flame in space and nude woman oil on cardboard 41 x 32 cm Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona, Spain |
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| 1932 Figure oil on panel 27.3 x 20 cm The Art Institute of Chicago, IL |
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| 1932 Composition with Figures gouache, over traces of graphite, on cream wove paper 48.2 x 63.2 cm The Art Institute of Chicago, IL |
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| 1932 Bather oil and pencil on wood 36.8 x 45.7 cm MoMA New York |
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| 1933 Untitled conté crayon, gouache and collage on paper Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona |
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| 1933 Untitled (Drawing-Collage) charcoal and cut-and-pasted painted paper and cut-and-pasted hand-colored gelatin silver print on paper 63.5 x 47.3 cm MoMA New York |
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| 1933 Painting oil on canvas 174 x 196.2 cm MoMA New York |
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| 1933 Painting (Figures with Stars) oil on canvas 198.1 x 246.4 cm The Art Institute of Chicago, IL |
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| 1933 Drawing collage conté crayon, postcards, sandpaper, and cut-and-pasted printed paper on flocked paper 107.8 x 72.1 cm MoMA New York |
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| 1933 Drawing - Collage 106.5 x 71.9 cm The Art Institute of Chicago, IL |
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| 1933-34 "Hirondelle Amour" oil on canvas 199.3 x 247.6 cm MoMA New York |
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| 1934 Painting oil on canvas 97 x 130 cm Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona, Spain |
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| 1934 Homage to Joan Prats collage, graphite pencil and charcoal on paper 63.3 x 47 cm Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona, Spain |
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| 1934 Figure charcoal pencil, pastel and pencil on paper 107 x 72 cm Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona, Spain |
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| 1934 Collage-painting oil, graphite pencil and collage on paper 37 x 23 cm Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona, Spain |
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| 1934 Collage corrugated cardboard, felt, gouache, and pencil on sandpaper 36.9 x 23.6 cm MoMA New York |
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| 1934 Woman pastel, charcoal, and graphite, with smudging and scraping, on tan wove paper 107.1 x 71.4 cm The Art Institute of Chicago, IL |
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| 1934 Woman (Opera Singer) pastel and pencil on flocked paper 106.7 x 71.1 cm MoMA New York |
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| 1934 Untitled conté crayon, gouache, and graphite on paper 71.2 x 106.9 cm Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York |
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| 1934 Untitled brush and black ink, and pastel on off-white laid paper 61.5 x 46.5 cm The Art Institute of Chicago, IL |
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| 1935 published 1936 Woman and dog in front of the moon Pochoir 51.3 x 45.4 cm (image) MoMA New York |
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| 1935 The Man with a Pipe gouache on paper 36.5 x 29.5 cm The Art Institute of Chicago, IL |
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| 1935 Rope and People I oil on cardboard mounted on wood, with coil of rope 104.8 x 74.6 cm MoMA New York |
1935 Plate (folio 33) from 23 Gravures
Etching from an illustrated book with twelve etchings (one with aquatint and drypoint), five drypoints, three engravings (one with drypoint), two lithographs, and one woodcut.
MoMA, New York
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| 1935 Plate (folio 33) from 23 Gravures 30.9 x 23.5 cm (plate) MoMA New York |
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| 1935 Personage, Animals, Mountains tempera on cream wove paper, laid down on thick millboard support 32.1 x 40.8 cm The Art Institute of Chicago, IL |
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| 1935 Man, Woman, and Bulls oil and metal fasteners on sandpaper, mounted on canvas, with feathers 108 x 99 cm The Art Institute of Chicago, IL |
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| 1935 Man and woman in front of a pile of excrement oil on copper 23 x 32 cm Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona |
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| 1935 Composition with figures watercolour and brush and black ink, over graphite, on white wove paper 34.2 x 45.8 cm The Art Institute of Chicago, IL 1936 Object Stuffed parrot on wood perch, stuffed silk stocking with velvet garter and doll's paper shoe suspended in hollow wood frame, derby hat, hanging cork ball, celluloid fish, and engraved map. |
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| 1936 Object 81 x 30.1 x 26 cm MoMA New York |
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| 1936 Drawing - Collage crayon and decals on paper 64 x 43.3 cm MoMA New York |
