Galerie Maeght, Paris
Galerie Art Focus, Zurich
Galerie Thomas, Munich
Private Collection, Japan (sale: Sotheby's, New York, 12th May 1999, lot 451)
Private Collection, Europe (purchased at the above sale)
Private Collection, London (acquired by 2007)
Acquired from the above by the present owner

José Pierre & José Corredor-Matheos, Céramiques de Miró et Artigas, Paris, 1974, no. 75, illustrated p. 207
Francesc Miralles, Llorens Artigas, Barcelona, 1992, no. 632, p. 207
Joan Punyet Miró & Joan Gardy Artigas, Joan Miró & Josep Llorens Artigas, Ceramics, Catalogue raisonné, 1941-1981, Paris, 2007, no. 97, illustrated in colour p. 100

Personnage is a particularly striking example of Miró’s celebrated collaboration with the ceramicist Josep Llorens Artigas. Having met as art students in Barcelona, their first collaborative forays into the medium date from the post-war period however it was not until 1953 that they began to work prolifically together at Artigas’ studio in Gallita, outside Barcelona. Artigas, and later his son Juan, created forms for Miró to paint and these pieces were then signed by both artists. Miró rejoiced in the opportunity to develop his understanding of a wider variety of mediums, experimenting with pebbles and abstract objects which he added to the earthenware forms before firing—as visible here—and to which his later sculptural œuvre is strongly indebted. Executed in 1956, the year the pair held a joint exhibition at the Pierre Matisse Gallery in New York, Personnage dates from a period that saw burgeoning international recognition for this influential collaboration.