Max Ernst

Walter Schwarzenberg, Brussels (sale: Galerie Georges Giroux, Brussels, Vente Walter Schwarzenberg, 1st & 2nd February 1932, lot 287)
Victor Servranckx, Brussels
Siegfried Adler, Montagnola (acquired from the widow of the above in the late 1960s)
Galleria Galatea, Turin
Andrée Stassart, Paris
Acquired from the above by the present owner in 1974

Ostende, Palais des Thermes and The Hague, Gemeentemuseum, Gloire de la peinture moderne - Hommage à James Ensor, 1949, no. 72
Turin, Galleria Galatea, Selezione 9, 1969, illustrated in the catalogue
Munich, Haus der Kunst and Paris, Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Le Surréalisme 1922-1942, 1972, no. 163 (in Munich), no. 158 (in Paris), illustrated in the catalogue
Munich, Haus der Kunst and Berlin, Nationalgalerie, Max Ernst, Retrospektive, 1979, no. 139, illustrated in colour in the catalogue
Bonn, Städtisches Kunstmuseum (on loan 1988-99)
London, Tate Gallery; Stuttgart, Staatsgalerie and Dusseldorf, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Max Ernst. A Retrospective, 1991, no. 114, illustrated in colour in the catalogue
New York, Museum of Modern Art; Houston, The Menil Collection and Chicago, The Art Institute of Chicago, Max Ernst: Dada and the Dawn of Surrealism, 1993, no. 208, illustrated in colour in the catalogue
Davos, Kirchner Museum and Essen, Museum Folkwang, Farben sind die Freuden des Lebens, 1999-2000, illustrated in colour in the catalogue

'Max Ernst, Œuvres de 1919 à 1936', in Cahiers d'Art, Paris, 1937, illustrated p. 100
Robert Benayoun, Erotique du Surréalisme, Paris, 1965, illustrated p. 185
Uwe M. Schneede, Max Ernst, Stuttgart, 1972, no. 167, illustrated p. 94
Werner Spies, Max Ernst, Œuvre-Katalog, Werke 1925-1929, Cologne, 1976, no. 1093, illustrated p. 156

In 1927, when his work was dominated by images of the natural world, such as forests, birds and seashells, Max Ernst executed a remarkable group of paintings combining birds with humans, as well as with imaginary, mythical creatures. In contrast to his forest paintings of this period, dominated by sharp vertical and diagonal lines, Scène d’érotisme sévère and related works are executed in swirling forms, and the intertwined bodies in motion convey a strong sense of movement and drama. In the present work, what at first glance appears to be a female nude becomes a mystical hybrid, spreading her arms which metamorphose into unrecognisable, threatening, animal-like forms and, verging between reality and fantasy, the entire scene acquires a surreal quality. Executed at the highpoint of the Surrealist movement, it combines the Freudian themes of eroticism and the world of dreams, penetrating the depths of the man’s unconscious mind.

The distorted perspective adds to the confusing character of the scene we are witnessing: the foreground is dominated by the clearly delineated floorboards, their diagonal lines evocative of the linear perspective of early Renaissance painting, while at the same time resembling a stage. Towards the centre of the composition, however, this spatial device is interrupted by two undefined planes, which could denote the vast expanses of sea and sky, or a theatrical backdrop. Hovering between these two spatial entities is an intertwined group of figures, whose anthropomorphic forms are united in a turbulent whole. The enigmatic identity of the figures suggests that they might be creatures from the artist’s nightmarish vision, or a mythical manifestation of an inexplicable cosmic force. Their amorphous shapes and intertwined limbs create a unified image of desire and erotic fantasy, reminiscent of Salvador Dalí’s treatment of the same subject in Le Grand masturbateur of 1929 (fig. 2).

Discussing the themes that marked Ernst’s work of 1927, his most productive year up to that time, William A. Camfield wrote: ‘Another thematic area addressed in 1927 involves that of a strange and haunted eroticism. This series of paintings, Two Naked Young Chimeras [fig. 1] and Scene of Harsh Eroticism [the present work], contains a generally softer and more sensuous ground, often in gray or mauve tones. A gentle, more monochromatic use of frottage has been employed to generate the images. The forms have been articulated in detail with delicately flowing delineation’ (W. A. Camfield, op. cit., p. 158).

Despite the use of what Camfield calls ‘soft frottage’ and a gentle use of pigments, Scène d’érotisme sévère bears a premonition of violence that was to become a central theme of Ernst’s later work. The theme of the struggle between Eros and Tanatos, so fundamental to the Surrealists’ view of the universe, is manifested here in the juxtaposition of erotic desire and the forces of destruction. The ambiguous creatures of the present composition acquire an increasingly abstract and threatening form in paintings such as La Horde (fig. 3), where a group of figures appears to be marching towards the viewer, creating a sense of aggressive tension and imminent danger. Ernst’s forceful imagery of aggressive figures and advancing barbarians heralds the violence that was to engulf Europe in the following decade. Whilst anticipating the imagery and themes that were to dominate his work in the decades to follow, the present painting is less a criticism of civilisation than an exploration of the fundamental Surrealist subjects and a striking visual enquiry into the Freudian themes of eroticism and the unconsious.

Fig. 1, Max Ernst, Deux jeunes chimères nues, 1927, oil on canvas, Private Collection
Fig. 2, Salvador Dalí, Le Grand masturbateur, 1929, oil on canvas, Museo Nacional Reina Sofía, Madrid
Fig. 3, Max Ernst, La Horde, 1927, oil on canvas, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam