A portrait of Joan Miró's mother appears by surprise under an oil painting that is part of the collection of the museum dedicated to the artist in Montjuïc. After a detailed investigation and the application of cutting-edge non-invasive techniques, a fairly clear image of the underlying portrait was obtained, which allowed it to be compared with others belonging to the family and led to the conclusion that the woman who appeared under the canvas was Dolors Ferrà i Oromí, the painter's mother. A work worthy of what we could call an art CSI. In this case, the CSI of the Fundació Miró.
Elisabet Serrat, head of preventive conservation and restoration at the Fundació Miró, has been in charge of this detective investigation that could well have been a case for Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot themselves. Serrat had long identified numerous cracks and small imperfections in the work Pintura, an oil painting made by Miró between 1925 and 1927. She had also observed some reliefs that indicated that these were caused by something that existed under the most superficial layer of the canvas, which the painter had given to his friend Joan Prats.
The painting remained under Prats' ownership until it passed to the museum in 1975. Serrat discovered a 1978 report on this work that already warned of its poor state of conservation. The file also contained a first X-ray that revealed the existence of an underlying portrait that could not be identified due to its scarce details. It was then decided to try to solve the enigma once and for all.
Technicians from the Centre de Restauració de Béns Mobles de Catalunya, the Pablo de Olavide University of Seville, the Fundació Mas Miró and the Fundació Miró Mallorca joined the investigation. The painting was subjected to the latest non-invasive techniques based on radiography and infrared spectroscopy. The result obtained was an image with enough details of the woman's portrait to be able to identify her, provided another one could be found to compare it with. Likewise, it was concluded that the reliefs present in Pintura corresponded to a pendant and the earrings of the underlying portrait.
Then, a field investigation began. First, at Mas Miró in Mont-roig del Camp, where the artist used to spend his summers. But it was in Son Boter, the painter's Mallorcan studio, where a portrait of a woman with the same face obtained in the laboratory and adorned with the same jewels was found. Case closed. It was Dolors Ferrà i Oromí, Joan Miró's mother. There was no doubt. The artist had reused a portrait of his mother attributed to Cristòfol Montserrat Jorba, a painter specialized in this type of works that were usually commissioned by members of the Catalan bourgeoisie of the time.
All this research can also be followed through the documentary El secret de Miró, a production by the Fundació Miró that has had the collaboration of the Fundació La Caixa. The film could be a cozy mystery in which Elisabet Serrat solves the case in the purest style of Mrs. Fletcher in Murder, She Wrote or like one of those classic Victorian detectives.
One of the mysteries to be solved, and which are left open to various interpretations, is why Miró decided to paint over a portrait of his mother. The other doubt is why the painter left the reliefs of the jewels visible when he could have flattened them. Perhaps he left a clue for the underlying portrait to be discovered. Miró used to paint over other artists' paintings, as a form of criticism of academic painting empty of content. The difference with his mother's portrait is that he always left visible evidence of the underlying paintings. In contrast, the case at hand is the first known in which he completely covers the original canvas.
In the documentary, Joan Punyet, Miró's grandson, ventures that it may have been a tribute from the painter to his mother by making a portrait of her spirit to juxtapose it with academic painting. This would make sense given the protection that Dolors Ferrà always exercised over her son, whom she always supported in the development of his career, unlike the tense relationship he always maintained with his father. Be that as it may, the case of the secret portrait has been solved. Elementary, dear Miró.