La spirale du rossignol au temps des moissons

Miró painted this watercolor in Paris, only a few weeks before storing his paintings and leaving the capital, amid increasing fears about the possibility of war, and moving to the town of Varengeville on the English Channel coast. In July 1939 Miró painted the four canvases in his series Le vol de l'oiseau sur la plaine (Dupin, nos. 610-613), whose title hints at his imminent flight from Paris. The present watercolor also refers to this theme. The nightingale, whose song was traditionally believed to have told of a longing for paradise, and was also a warning of the danger of death, flees before the harvester with his sickle, seen at upper left.