Private collection, London JOAN MIRÓ (SPANISH 1893 - 1983) Les essencies de la terra signed Miró. (lower right) brush and ink on lithograph 50 x 36 cm (19 ¾ x 14 ¼ in) Executed in 1968 PROVENANCE: Ediciones Polígrafa, Barcelona Private Collection, Spain Sale. Sotheby's, London, 20th June 2013, lot 243 Opera Gallery, London Purchased from the above by the present owner The authenticity of this work has been confirmed by ADOM. ‘I feel deeply in harmony with the Japanese soul’ (M. Rowell, ed., Joan Miró Selected Writings and Interviews, London, 1987, p. 275). Executed in 1968, the present lot is characterised by the energy and gestural force of Miró's works of the late 1960s. In 1966, two years before Miró executed Les essencies de la terra, the artist travelled to Tokyo for a retrospective of his work. The trip allowed Miró to meet Japanese potters, poets and calligraphers whose art he had always held in high regard. The influence of Miró’s experience in Japan can be seen in Les essencies de la terra; the artist has brushed four sweeping, interlocking black lines of ink which dominate the composition and appear like Japanese calligraphy script. The black ink is juxtaposed dramatically against the speckled patterns of green, blue, red and yellow.