Plate (folio 2) from Il était une petite pie (Once There Was a Little Magpie)

Plate (folio 2) from Il était une petite pie (Once There Was a Little Magpie) is an expressive contribution to the history of the illustrated book, created by Spanish artist Joan Miró in 1927. This work is one component of a larger portfolio comprising eight pochoir prints, a technique utilizing stencils to apply color that was popular among avant-garde artists for its precise and graphic quality.

The creation of the book occurred during a critical juncture in Miró’s career, the period of 1927–28, which saw the artist solidify his reputation as a major figure within the Surrealist movement. While living in Paris, Miró increasingly turned toward lyrical abstraction, employing a reductive vocabulary of forms that minimized detail while maximizing poetic and visual impact. The illustrations for Il était une petite pie exemplify this shift, featuring the biomorphic shapes, stark lines, and concentrated color fields that characterize Miró's mature style.

The pochoir medium allows the prints to retain a vibrant intensity, translating the lightness and spontaneity of the artist's hand into the reproducible format. Miró utilizes the empty space of the page as an active element, allowing the sparse, almost calligraphic figures to float ambiguously, suggesting connections between the earthly and the celestial. This approach to abstraction emphasizes visual rhythm over narrative convention, transforming the traditional illustrated book into an experiment in graphic poetry.

Though completed in 1927, the illustrated book was published in 1928. These early prints demonstrate the technical mastery and aesthetic innovation that Miró brought to graphic media. Considered an essential work in the modern printmaking canon, this piece resides in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA).