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Estimate: $ 15,000 - $ 20,000
JOAN MIRÓ Les Trois Sœurs.
Etching and drypoint, 1938. 265x195 mm; 10 5/8x7 3/4 inches, full margins. Signed and numbered 6/30 in pencil, lower margin. Created at the studio of Louis Marcoussis, Paris. Printed by Lacourière, Paris. Published by Pierre Loeb, Paris, and Pierre Matisse, New York. A superb, richly-inked, dark, proof-like impression of this extremely scarce, early etching.
Miró (1893-1983) produced many of his earliest etchings in the Parisian studio of his friend and fellow-artist Louis Marcoussis (1883-1941), the latter helping Miró hone his craft as an accomplished etcher, laying the foundation for him to become among the most significant printmakers of the 20th century. Their collaboration culminated in the Portrait de Miró, 1938, a plate on which both Miró and Marcoussis etched to create one of the greatest printed portraits of the Surrealist movement. Later on, Miró recalled some of Marcoussis's advice on etching: "Marcoussis took me to the local hardware store to buy zinc plates in poor condition. He resuscitated them by rubbing them with charcoal. Charcoal, said Marcoussis, is the savior of the engraver." Dupin 25.
