Joan Miró
Figures and Birds in a Landscape
1935
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Joan Miró
Figures and Birds in a Landscape
1935
Physical Qualities
Tempera on Masonite, 10 7/8 x 19 1/2 in. (27.6 x 49.5 cm.)
Credit Line
Bequest of Saidie A. May
Object Number
1951.340
Figures and Birds in a Landscape and Personages Attracted by the Forms of a Mountain (on view nearby) are two of twelve small works painted on hard supports, which depict violent and disturbing subject matter. Since they were produced as part of a series between October 1935 and May 1936, it is quite possible they reflect Miró’s apprehension on the eve of the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War. These compositions have been described as “horrific scenes in which figures and landscape elements are subject to oppressive forces.”
The Baltimore Museum of Art by bequest, 1951; The Baltimore Museum of Art on extended loan, 1938-1951; Saidie A. May by purchase, 1938; from Galerie Pierre, Paris.
The Baltimore Museum of Art, "The Saidie A. May Collection of Modern Paintings and Sculpture," March 17-April 16, 1950, cat. 83.
Denver Art Museum, "Ten by Ten," January-February 1954.
"Selections from the May Collection," Washington County Museum of Fine Arts, Hagerstown, Maryland, September 27-October 31, 1957.
Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts, Columbus, Ohio, November 9-December 4, 1967.
The Baltimore Museum of Art, "20th Century European Paintings and Sculpture," July 9- September 23, 1969.
The Baltimore Museum of Art,"Saidie A. May Collection," September 5-October 15, 1972, p. 77, ill. .
Carolyn Lanchner, "Joan Miró," Museum of Modern Art, New York, October 13, 1993-January 18, 1994, no. 132, p. 408, ill. p. 211.
Anne Umland, "Joan Miro: Painting and Anti-Painting/ 1927-1937," Museum of Modern Art, New York, November 2, 2008-January 12, 2009; plate 91, p. 236, ill. p. 190.
Denver Art Museum, "Ten by Ten," January-February 1954.
"Selections from the May Collection," Washington County Museum of Fine Arts, Hagerstown, Maryland, September 27-October 31, 1957.
Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts, Columbus, Ohio, November 9-December 4, 1967.
The Baltimore Museum of Art, "20th Century European Paintings and Sculpture," July 9- September 23, 1969.
The Baltimore Museum of Art,"Saidie A. May Collection," September 5-October 15, 1972, p. 77, ill. .
Carolyn Lanchner, "Joan Miró," Museum of Modern Art, New York, October 13, 1993-January 18, 1994, no. 132, p. 408, ill. p. 211.
Anne Umland, "Joan Miro: Painting and Anti-Painting/ 1927-1937," Museum of Modern Art, New York, November 2, 2008-January 12, 2009; plate 91, p. 236, ill. p. 190.
Gallatin 1936, ill. n.p. (photograph of Miró in his studio) [cited in MOMA exhibition catalogue, p. 408]
The Baltimore Museum of Art News, “Catalogue of the Saidie A. May Collection of Modern Paintings and Sculpture,” March, 1950, cat. 83, p. 20.
Jacques Dupin, "Joan Miró: Life and Work," London: Thames and Hudson, 1962, no. 419, pp. 285-286; ill. p. 533.
Jacques Dupin, "Joan Miró: catalogue raisonné: paintings," vol. 2, Paris: Daniel Lelong, Successió Miró,1999, no. 505.
Anne Umland, "Joan Miro: Painting and Anti-Painting/ 1927-1937," Museum of Modern Art: New York, 2008, plate 91, ill. p. 190.
Greeley, Robin Adele, Samantha Kavky, Oliver Shell, and Oliver Tostmann. "Monsters & Myths: Surrealism and War in the 1930s and 1940s." New York, NY: Rizzoli Electa in association with The Baltimore Museum of Art and Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, 2018, ill.
Inscribed: FACE: in center of sky, "Miro"; VERSO: "Joan Miro. / Figures et oiseaux dans un paysage / 23/10-8/11/35."
![LANDSCAPE WITH FIGURE SEATED ON A HILLSIDE [TOP]; LANDSCAPE WITH FIGURES NEAR A CROSS [BOTTOM]](https://artbma.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/96165_25714587.jpg)
