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.
Joan Miró: Painting and Anti-Painting 1927–1937, November 2, 2008–January 12, 2009.
Provenance Research Project
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1929, Joan Miró, Paris.
By October 1929 - 1930, Galerie Pierre (Pierre Loeb), Paris, acquired from the artist.
1930 - 1943, Mrs. Valentine Dudensing, New York, acquired from Galerie Pierre.
November 17, 1943 - 1979, James Thrall Soby (1906-1979), New Canaan and New York, acquired from Mrs. Valentine Dudensing.
1979, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, acquired by bequest from James Thrall Soby.
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Joan Miró
Spanish, 1893–1983 487 works onlineJoan Miró’s painting The Hunter (Catalan Landscape) brings together the real and the imaginary, abstraction and figuration, and image and text in a way that would characterize much of his work to come.
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