Galerie Maeght, Paris
Galerie Urban, Paris

Tokyo, Galerie Tamenaga, Exposition Miro. Peintures récentes: 1960-1978, no. 13, illustrated in colour in the catalogue

Jacques Dupin & Ariane Lelong-Mainaud, Joan Miró. Catalogue raisonné. Paintings: 1976-1981, Paris, 2004, vol. VI, no. 1714, illustrated in colour p. 33

The canvas is not lined and there are no signs of retouching under UV light. This work is in good original condition. Colours: Overall fairly accurate, although the colours are more luminous in the original work.
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Painted in the last decade of the artist's life, Femme à la mantille is a superb example of Miró's late work. The confident, thick brushstrokes and abundant use of black are both visually stunning and the mark of an artist who has fully evolved his style and technique. The vibrant, geometric patches of primary colour and bold line form a simple but arresting composition, delivered with precision characteristic of the atrist - a trait noticed by fellow master Alberto Giacometti, who noted that Miró 'could not put down a dot without it being in just the right place' (quoted in Joan Miro, 1917-1934 (exhibiti🐻on catalogue), Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, 2004, p. 212).

Miró has here assimilated the potent iconography of the Spanish woman in a mantilla. Velázquez and Goya had often depicted mantillas in the portraits and they were an evocative symbol of the upright and devout Spanish woman. Traditionally associated with the Catholic church, use of the mantilla had petered out by 1900 when it came to be worn mostly for special occasions. Miró renders the mantilla as a dominant black mass: the lace shawls sits upon a high comb to the upper left of the composition, which towers over the woman and extends out of the picture plane. The mantilla's illusion of extra height emphasises the woman's presence and splendour. The curling line and black flourishes around her body assert her beauty. Miró once said, 'For me, that is what I call woman, not a female creature, it is a universe' (quoted in Stephan von Wiese, Joan Miro, Snail Woman Flower Star, Munich, 2002). Here, the woman is transformed – she is both a radiant woman and a bearer of religious and national tradition. Miró had been greatly affected by Spain's suffering under Fascism, especially the persecution he endured as a Catalan. Franco's ideology had strongly featured Catholicism but here, only a year after Franco's death, Miró reclaims this heritage and its motif. Femme à la mantilla is thus a powerful image of woman as a glamorous 𝔍symbol of Spain.

Fig. 1, Joan Miró in his studio, 1930