Le Courtisan Grotesque
Joan Miró
1975
Full page drawing with colored wax pencil on paper
43,5 x 62 cm (43,5 x 31 cm for the part with drawing)
Signed, dated and dedicated
Page from the album "Le Courtisan Grotesque", Miró-Adrian de Monluc, Iliazd, 1974
Information taken from the preface to the catalog raisonné.
For Joan Miro, publisher Iliazd unearths an unknown text by an unknown 17th-century author, Adrian de Monluc, known as the Comte de Cramail. The text, Le Courtisan grotesque, comique et extravagant, begins as follows:
"The grotesque courtier came out of the palace of the mouth one day in between, dressed in verd de gris, he had a cardinal's hat, a fireplace mantle lined with the frieze of a column, a jeu de paume flap, a bastion shirt and a prison lattice pourpoint...". A series of erotico-warlike adventures follow, ending with the courtier's death.
The layout features bold, radical typography. Miro is free to deploy his most vivid lyricism. His drawing is scratchy, modulated and casual, with flat, projected and sprayed color, guiding the light.
This autographed page announces the book's cheerfulness and lightness, with its colorful shapes echoing and responding to each other.
