Max Ernst

Galerie Le Point Cardinal, Paris (acquired from the artist)

Acquired from the above in February 1965

Paris, Galerie Charpentier, Le Surréalisme. Sources - Histoire - Affinités, 1964, no. 144 

New York, The Jewish Museum, Max Ernst, 1966, n.n., illustrated in the catalogue 

New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Summer Loan Show, 1978

John Russell, Max Ernst, Life and Work, New York, 1967, no. 150, illustration of another cast p. 348

Werner Spies & S. & G. Metken, Max Ernst Oeuvre-Katalog: Werke 1954-1963, Cologne, 1998, no. 3824, illustration of another cast p. 408

Werner Spies, Max Ernst, Sculptures, Maisons, Paysages (exhibition catalogue), Centre Pompidou, Paris, 1998, no. 111, illustration of another cast p. 191

Max Ernst, Paramyths: Sculpture, 1934-1967 (exhibition ccatalogue), Paul Kasmin Gallery, New York, 2015, illustrations of another cast pp. 72-73

Created the year he turned seventy, L’Imbécile is a playful composition which combines the artist’s best loved sculptural imagery. Ernst's figural sculptures typically take their inspiration from fantastic characters, such as the avian creature Loplop, and their features take shape through the artist's playful manipulation of found objects. “His sculptural oeuvre is continuously characterized by playful treatments of simple forms and commonplace items. These objects are called into question and wrestled from their everyday functionality. Their identity is annulled and expanded, their meaning transformed and poeticized. Like his work as a whole, Ernst’s sculptures offer a view of a cosmos full of discovery” (Jürgen Pech in Max Ernst Retrospective (exhibition catalogue), Albertina, Vienna & Fondation Beyeler, Basel, 2013, p. 296).

Interpretations of the character depicted in L’Imbécile are varied. Ernst had pored over a 1922 book focused on art produced by the mentally ill and some scholars believed this work echoed imagery found within it. Werner Spies asserted that it was intended to depict Charles de Gaulle, the French president. Jürgen Pech points to “A leaflet written by the Belgian artist René Magritte in 1946 is also titled “L’imbécile”.... makes it clear that the correlations with Max Ernst have to be investigated further. And, in fact, his L’imbécile is not a mentally ill person, but a cleric. The round collard marks him as a pastor. He is possessed by two small figures, which can be identified by their poses; one is pious, the other is a free spirit” (Max Ernst, Paramyths: Sculpture, 1934-1967 (exhibition catalogue), Op. cit., p. 73).