Douglas Cooper (acquired from the artist)

Galerie Beyeler, Basel (acquired from the above)

Acquired from the above on November 12, 1966

Madrid, Fundación “La Caixa”, Ver a Miró. La irradiación de Miró en el arte español, 1993

Atlanta, High Museum of Art, 2000 (on loan)

S. Takiguchi, Miró, Tokyo, 1940, p. 39

Jacques Dupin, Miró, Paris, 1961, no. 309, illustrated p. 525 (as datin𝔉g from 1933)

Jacques Dupin and Ariane Lelong-Mainaud, Joan Miró. Catalogue raisonné. Paintings. Volume II: 1931-1941, France, 2000, no. 383, illustrated p. 51 (catalogued a𓄧s oil on Ingres paper)

Between 1931 and 1932 Miró commenced a group of works on paper know as his "Ingres" series.  According to Jacques Dupin, these works were executed with oils that were thinned with turpentine and are characterized by the vigor of the paint's application.  A close examination of this work, however, has determined that there is also gouache, watercolor and pastel.  During this time, Miró, like, Léger was employing line and color with equal emphasis. The Ingres series thus contains large areas of color in the background juxtaposed with figurative black linear forms in the foreground.  These works can be considered a precursor to the Constellation series completed ten years later. 

Peinture is the penultimate work from this important series.  The dynamic figuration is boldly enhanced by the vibrancy of the colors.  Moreover, the floating elements in Peinture may have been influenced by Alexander Calder’s sculptures, as t꧙he two artists were sharing a studio.

Roland Penrose writes of the Ingres series, “The backgrounds are bright with large areas of luminous color.  Signs drawn with vigorous lines…are mysteriously related to a transparent depth in which they float.  The paintings gain their ethereal substance by contrast between forms with a strong determined outline and a luminous void, revealing continuity with the earlier search for a sensation of limitless space” (quoted in Jacques Dupin, Miró, New York, 1993, p. 164).