Joan Miró, the famous Spanish artist, painted over a portrait of his mother nearly 100 years ago. Researchers at the Fundació Joan Miró in Barcelona recently made this discovery. The hidden portrait was first detected in the 1970s during an X-ray examination.
However, it was not until a recent study led by Elisabet Serrat that the subject was identified as Miró’s mother, Dolors Ferrà i Oromí. Advanced techniques like infrared photography, X-ray spectroscopy, and fluorescence were used to reveal the concealed portrait. The likeness of Miró’s mother was confirmed by comparing it with another known portrait of her from 1907.
Miró’s reason for overpainting the portrait is not entirely clear.
Miro’s hidden portrait revealed
He was known to overpaint earlier works as a critique of what he called “imitative painting.” Marko Daniel, the foundation’s executive director, thinks this act may have been a form of rebellion against the middle-class values his parents represented.
The upcoming exhibition “Under the Layers of Miró: A Scientific Investigation” will feature these findings. It will explore the hidden layers within Miró’s works and provide insight into his creative process. Photographic evidence using transmitted infrared light has revealed intricate details of the portrait subject’s face.
This provides a fascinating glimpse into the layers of history and art beneath Miró’s more famous work. This discovery adds a new dimension to our understanding of Joan Miró’s work and the personal influences that shaped his artistic journey. The Fundació Joan Miró continues to be an important source of research and scholarship on one of the 20th century’s most innovative artists.
