Joan MIRÓ (1893-1983)
Héraclite d'Ephèse (Sans le Soliel)
Paris: Adrien Maeght, éditeur, 1965.

Copy, signed by Miró in the justification, printed on Auvergne Richard-de-Bas with nine inserted engravings, comprising eight etchings with aquatint in colors (plates 2-3/8 x 5-3/4 in. or the converse) and one full-page drypoint with aquatint in colors (plate 12-1/4 x 9-1/2 in.), on B.F.K. Rives wove, unsigned, enclosed within folded Auvergne wrappers, together with (a) uniquely, a second, identical suite of the inserted prints, and (b) a full-page drawing by Miró on a preliminary blank, loose as issued, 13 x 10-5/16 in. (330 x 262 mm), with etching in black and white on the frontispiece, drypoint with aquatint printed in colors on the cover, and etching in black and white on the orange silk protective boards, all unsigned, in the original brown cloth clamshell box. The prints were printed, according to Dupin, by Atelier Maeght and Levallois-Perret. Fine throughout.

The edition catalogued by Cramer is 75 copies, justified as nos. 26-75 with a single suite of the color prints unsigned, and nos. 1-25, with an additional suite of the nine inserted prints in black and white only, signed and numbered. There were also a few hors commerce copies. This copy, one of the first 25, was presented by Miró to Josep Lluís Sert, the architect of the Miró Museum in Barcelona (and Miró's close friend). When the present owner's uncle got the book from Sert, Sert told him that when Miró had presented the book to him, he had looked through it (with Miró present), exclaiming his admiration for the color prints. He was apparently less enthusiastic about the prints in black, so Miró jokingly "confiscated" the set and replaced it with a second suite in color.

This lyrical suite of Miró's whimsical galaxies is a serial meditation on the single line of text in the book (apart from frontispiece and colophon, and set forth on its separate leaf), attributed to the pre-Socratic philosopher Heraclitus: "Sans le soliel, malgré les autres astres, il ferait nuit."

Cramer, Patrick, Joan Miró, the illustrated books: catalogue raisonné (Geneva: P. Cramer, 1989), no. 98; Dupin, Jacques, Miró Engraver, v. 2, 1961-1973, pp. 70-74, nos. 398-409 (Paris: D. Lelong, 1989).

Provenance: Josep Lluís Sert

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