Figures and Dog in front of the Sun, 1949 by Joan Miro

After his return to Spain, Miro closed the door on the turbulent period of the Spanish Civil War and on World War II, which was still continuing. His international career began to unfold at his exhibition in New York in 1941. the exhibition brought his fame to the United States at the moment when his pictorial vocabulary, which had been taking shape since the twenties, had matured into a unique language of his own. In the Constellations, he made the whole of the painting into a single, unified surface, integrating the figure with the background.

Miro's very personal vocabulary of symbols was perfected by 1945. His paintings from this period are especially notable for their treatment of the background. The color of the background permeated the texture of the surface it is painted on, turning the field of color itself into a pictorial structure.