À toute épreuve
Joan Miró
1958
Illustrated book
33.4 x 25.9 cm
Illustrated first edition of Paul Eluard's collection of three poems, published under the title "A toute épreuve" in 1930. Illustrated with 80 original color woodcuts by Miro, including one for the cover, some enhanced with collages.
Signed by Miro,
Éd. Gérald Cramer, Geneva.
Catalog raisonné: Cramer 49
In 1942, Joan Miro and Paul Éluard had formed the idea of publishing an illustrated book or album based on a poem by Éluard. The opportunity arose in 1947 when, at the suggestion of Geneva publisher Gerald Cramer, the two artists began working with him on what was to be the most ambitious project of Miro's entire bibliophile career: A toute épreuve.
The conception of this work, which was to take just over a year, occupied Joan Miro for an entire decade. Sadly, Éluard never saw it completed, dying six years before publication.
In a letter to Cramer dated June 19, 1948, Joan Miro declares: "I did some tests that allowed me to see what it was like to make a book, not to illustrate it; illustration is always a secondary thing. The important thing is that a book should have all the dignity of a sculpture carved in marble".
The typography, handled by Fequet and Baudier, is the implementation of an "architecture" evoked by Miro to create absolute harmony between the text and the engravings. The engravings reflect the surrealist spirit of the Eluardesque stanzas, extending their visual and poetic imagination.
Information from the catalog raisonné P. Cramer: Miro, Les Livres illustrés
