P ainted a few years after the artist returned to France following a decade-long hiatus in Arizona, Le Cri evokes the complexities of post-war Europe. As the title suggests, the present work relates to Edvard Munch’s seminal work, The Scream, of 1893 (see fig. 1).

Fig. 1 Edvard Munch, The Scream, 1893, oil, tempera, pastel and crayon on cardboard, National Gallery and Munch Museum, Oslo, Norway

As a young man, Ernst was drafted and served in battle for the First World War. Horrified by the destruction of the wars, Ernst executed his pivotal work Europe after the Rain in 1941 that illustrates a post-war apocalyptic landscape (see fig. 2). The two World Wars had drastic effects upon the artist’s psyche and became a motif that would stay relevant throughout his oeuvre.

Fig. 2 Max Ernst, Europe After the Rain, 1941, oil on canvas, Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut © 2022 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris