Oil paint on canvas
Tate St Ives
Tate Collection
Works with images
Works on display
General Collection
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<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/joan-miro-1646" aria-label="More by Joan Miró" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Joan Miró</a>
Women and Bird in Moonlight
Purchased 1951
abstraction
adults
animals: birds
astronomy
bird - non-specific
colour
figure
from recognisable sources
irregular forms
landscape
moonlight
night
non-representational
people
star
times of the day
woman
<p>This work belongs to a series of paintings that Miró made in 1949–50 in Majorca. Miró’s use of simple shapes and bright colours constitutes a highly personal visual language, often charged with symbolic meaning. In this case, the women and bird of the title are easily identifiable under the moon and stars. This imagery suggests a harmonious and elemental relationship between man and nature, which the artist felt was threatened by modern civilisation.</p><p><em>Gallery label, August 2013</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
17 June 2002 – 8 June 2003
2003-06-08
17 June 2002 – 8 June 2003
2003-06-08
2002-06-17
Tate Modern (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/
2002-06-17
Circle of Influence: Herbert Read
Collection based display
1 June 2005 – 31 August 2005
2005-08-31
1 June 2005 – 31 August 2005
2005-08-31
2005-06-01
Muros (Cuernavaca, Mexico)
http://www.muros.org.mx
2005-06-01
Reciprocal loan - Kahlo
Loan-out
14 April 2011 – 12 August 2012
2012-08-12
14 April 2011 – 11 September 2011
2011-09-11
2011-04-14
Tate Modern (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/
16 October 2011 – 8 March 2012
2012-03-08
2011-10-16
Fundació Joan Miró (Barcelona, Spain)
http://www.bcn.fjmiro.es
6 May 2012 – 12 August 2012
2012-08-12
2012-05-06
National Gallery of Art (Washington DC, USA)
2011-04-14
Miró: The Ladder of Escape
Exhibition
15 October 2011 – 29 July 2012
2012-07-29
15 October 2011 – 18 March 2012
2012-03-18
2011-10-15
Fundació Joan Miró (Barcelona, Spain)
http://www.bcn.fjmiro.es
29 April 2012 – 29 July 2012
2012-07-29
2012-04-29
National Gallery of Art (Washington DC, USA)
2011-10-15
Joan Miro The Ladder of Escape
Loan-out
12 September 2014 – 11 January 2015
2015-01-11
12 September 2014 – 11 January 2015
2015-01-11
2014-09-12
Albertina Museum (Vienna, Austria)
http://www.albertina.at/en
2014-09-12
Joan Miró
Loan-out
16 February 2019 – 31 January 2021
2021-01-31
16 February 2019 – 31 January 2021
2021-01-31
2019-02-16
Tate Liverpool (Liverpool, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/liverpool/
2019-02-16
Max Ernst
Collection based display
13 March 2021
13 March 2021
2021-03-13
Tate St Ives (St Ives, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/stives/
2021-03-13
Gallery 4: Modern Art and St Ives
Collection based display
1 November 2025 – 30 May 2027
2027-05-30
1 November 2025 – 28 February 2026
2026-02-28
2025-11-01
External
1 April 2026 – 31 July 2026
2026-07-31
2026-04-01
External
1 September 2026 – 31 December 2026
2026-12-31
2026-09-01
External
1 February 2027 – 30 May 2027
2027-05-30
2027-02-01
External
2025-11-01
IP: The Future of Statues: The Surrealist International
Loan-out
Women and Bird in the Moonlight
support: 813 × 660 mm
frame: 1049 × 897 × 114 mm
Purchased 1951
<div class="text">
<p>This work belongs to a series of paintings that Miró made in 1949–50 in Majorca. <br/>Miró’s use of simple shapes and bright colours constitutes a highly personal visual language, often charged with symbolic meaning. In this case, the women and bird of the title are easily identifiable under the moon and stars. This imagery suggests a harmonious and elemental relationship between man and nature, which the artist felt was threatened by modern civilisation.</p>
</div>

Display caption
2013-08-02T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p><b>Joan Miró</b><span> born 1893 [ - 1983] </span>
<br/></p>
<p><span><a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/miro-women-and-bird-in-the-moonlight-n06007" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N06007</span></a> </span><b>Femmes, Oiseau au Clair de Lune (Women and Bird in the Moonlight)</b><span> 1949 </span>
<br/></p>
<p><span>Inscribed 'Miró | 10 | 1949' on back of canvas</span>
<br/><span>Oil on canvas, 32 x 26 (81.5 x 66)</span>
<br/><span>Purchased from the Galerie Maeght (Knapping Fund) 1951</span>
<br/><i>Prov:</i><span>
With Galerie Maeght, Paris (purchased from the artist 1951) </span><i>Exh:</i><span>
</span><i>Braque, Chagall, Kandinsky, La Fresnaye, Matisse, Miró, Arp ...</i><span>, Galerie Maeght, Paris, February-March 1951 (no catalogue); </span><i>Joan Miró</i><span>, Tate Gallery, August-October 1964 (188, repr.); Kunsthaus, Zurich, October-December 1964 (188, repr.); </span><i>Joan Miró</i><span>, Grand Palais, Paris, May-October 1974 (65, repr.); Louisiana Museum, Humlebaek, November 1974-January 1975 (29, repr. in colour)</span>
<br/><i>Lit:</i><span>
Jacques Dupin, </span><i>Joan Miró: Life and Work</i><span> (London 1962), No.730, pp.392-5, repr. p.555 as 'Painting. 1 June, 1949'</span><br/><i>Repr:</i><span> </span><i>XX</i><i>e</i><i>
Siècle</i><span>, No.1, 1951, p.32 as 'Femme et Oiseau au Clair de Lune'; Jacques Prévert and G. Ribemont-Dessaignes, </span><i>Joan Miró</i><span> (Paris 1956), p.167 as 'L'Etoile blanche' 1948; Roland Penrose, </span><i>Miró</i><span>
(London 1970), p.114 in colour </span>
<br/></p>
<p><span>When asked whether the title used here was correct, the artist replied (letter of 17 June 1954): 'To the whole of this series of <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>paintings</span></a>, which was executed very slowly, I gave on completion a general title of "Paintings", but later, to be more precise and give a more objective and concrete meaning, I entitled your picture "Femmes, Oiseau au Clair de Lune".' </span>
<br/></p>
<p><span>Jacques Dupin has pointed out that Miró's paintings of the period 1949-50 can be divided into two contrasting and complementary series: a series of very elaborate paintings noteworthy for the diversity and extraordinary refinement of their grounds (the present work is an example of this) and a further series of completely spontaneous paintings of a summary, <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/g/gestural" title="Glossary definition for 'Gestural'"><span>gestural</span></a> character. In the 'elaborate' paintings, he writes, 'Figures, birds, animals, stars, and signs play and combine with one another with an elegance and acrobatic sureness, a casualness in the revelation of mystery and a joy in their nostalgic evocation of a primitive world which together confound the imagination'. </span>
<br/></p>
<p><b>Published in:</b>
<br/><span>Ronald Alley, </span><i>Catalogue of the Tate Gallery's Collection of Modern Art other than Works by British Artists</i><span>, Tate Gallery and Sotheby Parke-Bernet, London 1981, pp.525-6, reproduced p.525</span>
<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-09-15T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
abstraction adults animals: birds astronomy bird - non-specific colour figure from recognisable sources irregular forms landscape moonlight night non-representational people star times of the day woman