The Reaper (Miró)

Until 1937 Miró had maintained a mostly apolitical stance, but he had Republican sympathies, and the mural was intended as a protest against the violence wracking his home country.

He had created a stamp and poster, Aidez l'Espagne, earlier in 1937, which depicted a Catalan peasant wearing a traditional red hat (barretina) and shaking his fist.

Miró painted his mural in June 1937, directly onto six 6 feet (1.8 m) square celotex insulation panels forming part of the structure of the pavilion.

Sert said in 1968 that Miró's work was inspired by a Catalan song, "Els Segadors" (The Reapers), which eventually became Catalonia's national anthem.

Miró donated the mural to the Spanish government, and the six panels were packed to be transported to the Ministry of Fine Arts in Valencia.

A black-and-white photograph of The Reaper by Joan Miró (1937). The mural was painted with oil on celotex insulation panels. The original work was lost in 1938.
Replica (built in Barcelona in 1992) of the pavilion of the Spanish Republic at the 1937 Paris International Exhibition.
Replica outside the Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid of Alberto Sánchez Pérez's The Spanish people have a path that leads to a star