Portrait of Enric Cristòfol Ricart

The Portrait of Enric Cristòfol Ricart is a significant early work by Joan Miró, executed during the winter or early spring of 1917 in Barcelona. This painting utilizes oil and pasted paper on canvas, demonstrating Miró’s experimental approach to integrating diverse materials before his full engagement with Surrealism. The subject, Enric Cristòfol Ricart, was a contemporary Catalan artist and friend of the painter, providing an intimate context for the sitting. This period marked a pivotal moment for Spanish modernism, as Miró was actively synthesizing international influences ranging from the flat planes of Fauvism to the fractured forms of Cubism.

Miró captured Ricart in a highly structured, angular manner. The artist employed vibrant, often non-naturalistic colors typical of his early period, blending a geometric rigor with intense chromatic energy. The inclusion of pasted paper fragments, incorporated directly into the composition, reflects an awareness of the contemporary papier collé techniques then emerging through the Cubist movement. However, the work maintains a distinct, intensely personal texture, showcasing the artist’s unique formal vocabulary. The sharp outlines and defined facial contours suggest a dynamic tension between objective portraiture and decorative abstraction, characteristic of his explorations during this phase.

Created during his critical developmental phase in Barcelona, the painting reveals Miró actively seeking new artistic directions beyond academic tradition. This commitment to formal innovation would define his revolutionary later career. As a foundational piece of his oeuvre, the Portrait of Enric Cristòfol Ricart offers crucial insight into the artist’s transition toward the poetic, symbolic languages that would characterize his masterpieces of the 1920s. Today, the painting resides in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art, New York. High-quality prints and academic reproductions of this Spanish masterwork are commonly studied for insight into early European modernism.