Joan Miró, one of the most influential figures of 20th century art.
Catalan artist Joan Miró combined abstraction and Surrealism to remarkable effect, resulting in a magnificent visual vocabulary which remains instantly recognisable more than 40 years since his death. Miró’s signature style and radical approach to art spurred him to international success, and he is widely regarded as one of the most important artists of the 20th century.
Joan Miró experimented with numerous mediums throughout his long life, including painting, ceramics, tapestry, sculpture, and printmaking. His art is especially popular in the US and the UK, and it is prints which dominate his market; accounting for an impressive 92% of his work sold at auction, most Miró prints sell for between £1,000 and £5,000, though plenty attain far higher prices.
Below is a list of Joan Miró’s six most expensive prints sold at auction. To find out more about how much a Joan Miró print might be worth, or how to sell it, get in touch with Mark Littler today.
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Homentage à Joan Prats
Joan Prats was a well-known promoter of Catalan art who became good friends with Joan Miró after the pair met at the Llotja art school in Barcelona. Prats played an important role in the establishment of the Fundació Joan Miró by donating his extensive personal collection of Miró artwork. The Fundació opened to the public in 1975, five years after Prats death, and it remains dedicated to preserving Miró’s legacy whilst showcasing the work of emerging talents.
Miró created this series of 15 lithographs one year after Prats’ death. A dazzling tribute to his great friend and supporter, the series nearly tripled its estimate when it was sold by Galerie Kornfeld Auktionen in June 2022 for £118,210.
Homentage à Joan Prats sold by Galerie Kornfeld in 2002
Le Lézard Aux Plumes D’Or
These 15 lithographs in colours were based on Joan Miró’s poem of the same name, translating as The Lizard with Golden Feathers, and they were sold by Christie’s in December 2002 for £80,000. The prints were published as a portfolio accompanied by the poem in 1971, and they are imbued with a free, childlike energy and enthusiasm, replete with vibrant colours and swirling, organic shapes.
Poetry and words were always important to Miró’s practice, and at times he even combined the two to create his so-called picture poems. For the artist, poetry and visual art were closely related; he once said, “I try to apply colours like words that shape poems”, and he believed “the painting rises from the brushstrokes as a poem rises from the words.”
Le Lézard Aux Plumes D’Or sold by Christies in 2002
Les Essències De La Terra
These nine lithographs in colours were based on eight 16th and 17th century Catalan texts, as well as the written works of Joan Perucho, an avant-garde Spanish writer, poet, and art critic who was also a professional judge. Translating as The Essences of the Land, the lithographs pay homage to Miró’s Catalan origins, which were a constant source of pride and inspiration to the artist. The prints were sold by Sotheby’s in March 2010 for £75,000.
Les Essències De La Terra sold by Sotheby’s in 2010
Composition
This monotype was hand coloured with oil, ink, and charcoal, and it was sold by Christie’s in October 2014 for £74,628. The monotype dates from 1977, just six years before Miró’s death aged 90. Despite his advancing years, Miró remained fiercely independent and incredibly prolific; in 1978, he is quoted as declaring that he had recently been painting “in a frenzy, with real violence so that people will know that I am alive, that I’m breathing, that I still have a few more places to go. I’m heading in new directions.”
Composition sold by Christie’s in 2014
Sans Titre
This is another monotype from 1977, and it was sold by Christie’s in November 2023 for £73,660. The image features a conscious and considered interplay between the abstract and the figurative: at first glance, the monotype appears to be completely made up of abstract shapes and random marks of colour, but upon closer inspection, one can make out something resembling a figure and a face in the black outlines at the forefront of the image.
This interplay between different styles is one of the things which makes Joan Miró’s work standout; he constantly absorbed and combined different artistic movements, but refused to be constrained by any of them, and instead created his own rich, unique visual language.
Sans Titre sold by Christie’s in 2023
L’Invitée Du Dimanche I
Created in 1969, this playful, imaginative etching and aquatint in colours was sold by Christie’s in May 2018 for £66,635, a staggering nine times its top estimate. The print features Miró’s trademark flat, organic shapes, scrawled lines, and bold use of colour. Its title (translating as The Sunday Guest I) invites questions and curiosity, prompting the viewer to wonder about the identity and importance of the titular guest.
Here, as in so much of Miró’s work, the artist exemplified his own beliefs that “In a picture, it should be possible to discover new things every time you see it… A picture should be like sparks. It must dazzle like the beauty of a woman or a poem. It must have radiance”.
L’Invitée Du Dimanche I sold by Christie’s in 2018
