Women and Birds at Sunrise, 1946 by Joan Miro

After 1945 it was paintings with light-coloured surfaces that made Miro a "public painter." Many of his motifs helped him to become popular quickly. The finely textured, greyish surface shows a splotch of white paint which the artist has rubbed into the canvas so that only a cloudy shadow is left. It also limits the field of the finely drawn figures, the woman with her stylized breasts and genitals, her large shining eyes and the little birds that are fluttering around her. This mythical medley is benevolendy illuminated by a large, red sun.