Decades of detective work have uncovered Joan Miró’s hidden act of rebellion: painting over his mother’s portrait. But why did the artist do it?
Three clumps of raised paint, an old X-ray and months of scientific analysis and dogged detective work have revealed that a portrait of Joan Miró’s mother has lurked, undetected, beneath the cobalt-blue surface of one of the Spanish artist’s inimitable works for the best part of a century.
Between 1925 and 1927, Miró created a small, oil-on-canvas picture, titled Pintura (Painting), which he gave to his great friend, the art promoter Joan Prats.
