artmastered:

Rufino Tamayo, Animals, 1941, oil on canvas, 76.5 x 101.6 cm, MoMA, New York. Source

According to the MoMA, Animals was painted by Mexican artist Rufino Tamayo on the evening that the United States joined the Second World War. The work is believed to be inspired by these events, as well as by Aztec and Mayan burial sculptures, which were often shaped like dogs.