Daphnis et Chloé. by Joàn Miró, 1893-1983

Joàn Miró, 1893-1983
Scroll down for information.
Click here to return to the list.

Daphnis et Chloé.

Original drypoint in black ink. 1933. Rare trial proof unsigned for the edition of 100 impressions printed in 1933. Printed at the Atelier Lacourière - this impression from the Lacourière archives. Published edition issued by Tériade, Paris 1933.
An important print from the height of Miro's Surrealism.
Ref: Dupin - Miro Graveur no 9

Fine trial proof impression, printed with wiped plate tone. On pale cream soft japan paper. Excellent condition. Full margins. Sheet: 13 1/8 x 17 1/2ins. Plate: 10 3/8 x 12 3/4ins (264x324mm)

This item is sold.
Click here to enquire about this item.

This trial proof is one of a very small number printed at the Atelier Lacourière in 1933. These few proofs were printed on varying papers; this example (which was found in Lacourière?s archives) is on a soft japan paper. A comparison with the edition impressions (on Arches paper) shows that a much richer inking was used so that there is tone on the surface and tone modelling the forms as opposed to the very clean-wiped pure line of the edition. This use of tone gives the image a much greater plasticity and depth. We know of only two other existing trial proofs of this etching (both of which we have seen); one was with a very uneven wiped tone on wove paper, the other on a rough sheet of pale japan. All three were found in the Lacourière archive.

?Daphnis et Chloé? is the earliest etching in Miró?s oeuvre. At this time in the early 1930?s his use of surrealist imagery was at its peak. The theme of 'Daphnis and Chloé? was taken from the classical legend but Miró adapted it to a form of dreamlike hallucination - in the foreground the noble Daphnis and the beast and reclining in the background Chloé, the arrow pointing towards her heart. At the same time it is a dream-composition with the forms translated into a world of the fantastic. Miró came to Paris in 1922 and almost immediately his interest in an imagery of imagination, seen in his earlier landscapes in Spain, led him to join the Dada circle and then in 1924, having met André Breton he joined the Surrealist group, signing their manifesto.

With the other Surrealists Miró began to explore ways of evoking the inner world of the subconscious mind with its illogical but instinctive associations and reactions. Using hallucination and techniques like ?automatic writing?, he wanted to create uncontrolled form.
Themes and shapes are used to stimulate a reaction not in the conscious visual mind but at a subliminal level. It was in pursuit of this that he used stellar forms, such as the stars and the moon, and also quasi-recognisable figures or adaptations of traditional themes, like the legendary Daphnis and Chloé.