Which 1924–25 Joan Miró painting depicts a colorful imaginary world known as the Carnival of Harlequin?

Joan Miró’s 1924–25 painting The Harlequin’s Carnival depicts a colorful imaginary world filled with playful Surrealist figures.

Miró painted the work during the period when he was developing an abstract visual language based on biomorphic shapes, bright colors and imaginative symbols. The crowded scene includes a harlequin, musical instruments, animals, stars and strange creatures. Rather than presenting a literal carnival, Miró creates an invented space that resembles a dream or hallucination.

The painting is associated with the early Surrealist movement, although Miró’s style remained distinct from the more illusionistic dream paintings of Salvador Dalí. He often used automatic drawing and free association as starting points for compositions.

The title is sometimes shortened informally to Carnival, but the canonical English title is The Harlequin’s Carnival. It is held by the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, New York, now known as the Buffalo AKG Art Museum.