This frieze of figures with lyrical black contours floating on a ground of browns and blues was commissioned for the Harvard University graduate dining hall at the suggestion of architect Walter Gropius. Miró executed Mural Painting in Barcelona after his sketches had been approved. His subject is thought to be a bullfight with a large bull in the middle flanked by a banderillero on the left and a matador on the right. The figure second from the left has been read as the rear of a picador’s horse. Ten years after installing this commission in the dining hall, Miró replaced it with a more durable ceramic tile version, and the original painting was acquired by the Museum.
Gallery label from 2007.