ON a spring day in 1920, Joan Miró found his way to Pablo Picasso’s studio on the Rue de la Boétie, in Paris. For this much-anticipated first meeting, the young Catalan artist came armed with a cake, at the behest of Picasso’s mother, who was an old family friend. It would appear both artist and gift were well received, as Picasso soon took the fellow Spaniard under his wing, introducing him to the city’s avant-garde circles and even buying one of his self-portraits. During this period, the pair of would-be titans were experimenting with entirely new ways of seeing the world. Unbridled by any particular style or medium, they interrogated the principles of Surrealism, abstraction and the power of the unconscious. As Picasso married neo-Classical sensibilities with Cubist theories, Miró had begun moving from stylised representation to his unique form of symbols and hieroglyphs. Soon, their stars rose to imperceptible heights, to become two of the most ground-breaking artists of the 20th century.
Barcelona, €4.2 million (about £3.7m)
Completely restored in 2000, this light and airy apartment occupies an entire floor in a historic building overlooking the city's Avenida Diagonal. Spread over 5,963sq ft, the apartment boasts two spacious suites with en-suite bathrooms, a further two bedrooms and separate bathrooms, an office, library and a fully equipped kitchen designed by La Cornue.
Amat Luxury (00 34 93 452 9960; www.amatluxury.com)
Denne historien er fra March 22, 2023-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Denne historien er fra March 22, 2023-utgaven av Country Life UK.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
Save our family farms
IT Tremains to be seen whether the Government will listen to the more than 20,000 farming people who thronged Whitehall in central London on November 19 to protest against changes to inheritance tax that could destroy countless family farms, but the impact of the good-hearted, sombre crowds was immediate and positive.
A very good dog
THE Spanish Pointer (1766–68) by Stubbs, a landmark painting in that it is the artist’s first depiction of a dog, has only been exhibited once in the 250 years since it was painted.
The great astral sneeze
Aurora Borealis, linked to celestial reindeer, firefoxes and assassinations, is one of Nature's most mesmerising, if fickle displays and has made headlines this year. Harry Pearson finds out why
'What a good boy am I'
We think of them as the stuff of childhood, but nursery rhymes such as Little Jack Horner tell tales of decidedly adult carryings-on, discovers Ian Morton
Forever a chorister
The music-and way of living-of the cabaret performer Kit Hesketh-Harvey was rooted in his upbringing as a cathedral chorister, as his sister, Sarah Sands, discovered after his death
Best of British
In this collection of short (5,000-6,000-word) pen portraits, writes the author, 'I wanted to present a number of \"Great British Commanders\" as individuals; not because I am a devotee of the \"great man, or woman, school of history\", but simply because the task is interesting.' It is, and so are Michael Clarke's choices.
Old habits die hard
Once an antique dealer, always an antique dealer, even well into retirement age, as a crop of interesting sales past and future proves
It takes the biscuit
Biscuit tins, with their whimsical shapes and delightful motifs, spark nostalgic memories of grandmother's sweet tea, but they are a remarkably recent invention. Matthew Dennison pays tribute to the ingenious Victorians who devised them
It's always darkest before the dawn
After witnessing a particularly lacklustre and insipid dawn on a leaden November day, John Lewis-Stempel takes solace in the fleeting appearance of a rare black fox and a kestrel in hot pursuit of a pipistrelle bat
Tarrying in the mulberry shade
On a visit to the Gainsborough Museum in Sudbury, Suffolk, in August, I lost my husband for half an hour and began to get nervous. Fortunately, an attendant had spotted him vanishing under the cloak of the old mulberry tree in the garden.
