Max Ernst

Johanna 'Mutter' Ey, Dusseldorf (acquired from the artist in 1925)
Thence by descent to the present owner

Brühl, Schloss Augustusburg, Berlin, Haus am Waldsee; Darmstadt, Mathildenhöhe & Hamburg, Amerikahaus, Max Ernst. Gemälde und Graphik 1920-1950, 1951-52, no. 4 (no. 46 in Darmstadt. As dating from circa 1920 and with incorrect medium and measurements)
Stuttgart, Württembergischer Kunstverein, Max Ernst, 1952, no. 46
Dusseldorf, Staatliche Kunsthalle, Am Anfang: Das Junge Rheinland, 1985, illustrated in colour in the catalogue
Cologne, Museum Ludwig, Max Ernst. Das Rendezvous der Freunde, 1991, no. 56, illustrated in the catalogue (with incorrect medium)
Munich, Haus der Kunst & Berlin, Nationalgalerie, Max Ernst. Die Retrospektive, 1999, no. 41, illustrated in colour in the catalogue
New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Max Ernst: A Retrospective, 2005, no. 51, illustrated in colour in the catalogue (with incorrect medium)
Hamburg, Kunsthalle (on long term loan until 2005)
Brühl, Max Ernst Museum (on loan until September 2006)

Werner Spies, Max Ernst, OEuvre-Katalog. Werke 1906-1925, Cologne, 1975, no. 611, illustrated p. 315 (with incorrect medium)

The present work is one a series painted in 1923 and sharing the characteristic white on black ground. William Camfield has described these works as follows:

 

'In his text, ['Max Ernst, peintre des illusions', Louis] Aragon discussed what he called Ernst's ''black manner'', ... describing some works as dominated by pure black and creating the impression of being ''drawn in chalk on a schoolboard''. [They] actually consist of black paint on wood with a white undercoating into which Ernst has scratched the composition, thereby blurring the distinction between painting and drawing and reversing the appearance of more conventional drawing in pencil on white paper ... [they] exhibit falling or floating female nudes in simple silhouette forms that play with left-right reversals and contrasts of light/dark, positive/negative, and form/shadow' (W. Camfield, Max Ernst: Dada and the Dawn of Surrealism (exhibition catalogue), Munich, 1993, pp. 132-133).

The first owner of this work was the legendary art dealer Johanna 'Mutter' Ey (1864-1947), and the painting has remained in her family to this day. Her gallery Junge Kunst-Frau Ey in Dusseldorf became the focal point for avant-garde painters and writers and she had an intuitive feel for the modern art of her day. She befriended a number of artists and helped to nurture their talents, with figures frequenting her gallery ranging from Ernst to Otto Dix and Alexej von Jawlensky.