André Breton, the poet and philosopher who served as the intellectual anchor of Surrealism declared Miró "the most surrealist of us all." But while Miró was influenced by Surrealist ideas, he was not a central figure in the movement, having more strictly visual interests than many of the Surrealists. This work, with its cloud surrounded by calligraphic black scrawls and wispy strokes that hint of birds, dates from a period in Miró's career when he was pushing ever closer to almost completely abstract works, often defined by broad areas of color and inhabited by strange "biomorphic" shapes.

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