Max Ernst

Galerie Alexandre Iolas, Paris (acquired by 1966)
Private Collection, England (acquired in the late 1960s; sale: Sotheby's, London, 20th October 1999, lot 73)
Purchased at the above sale by the present owner

New York, The Jewish Museum, Max Ernst: Sculpture and Recent Painting, 1966, no. 68
Venice, Palazzo Grassi, Max Ernst oltre la pittura, 1966, no. 66 

John Russell, Max Ernst, Leben und Werk, Cologne, 1966, no. 128, illustrated
Werner Spies, Sigrid & Günter Metken & Jürgen Pech, Max Ernst Oeuvre-Katalog, Werke 1964-1969, Cologne, 2007, no. 3859, illustrated p. 17

The panel is sound and there are no signs of retouching visible under UV light. There is some light paint shrinkage throughout, visible in the catalogue, intrinsic to the medium. This work is in good original condition. Colours: The yellow is more lemon yellow in the original and the lower half is less red and deeper in the original.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

The Surrealist paintings of Max Ernst are fraught by an omnipresent tension; they are, on the one hand, paintings which bear the impression of the artist's subjectivity, laden with a symbolism that is at once highly intimate and universal. Whilst, on the other, they testify only to the act of painting itself, to the agency of the unconscious mind – they are but vestiges of an automatic process that cannot be recalled or recreated. It is perhaps to this complexity that Ernst was referring when he expressed his desire to create a 'painting beyond painting'.

The present work, Tremblement de terre éteint or Le calme après l'orage was borne of this same desire. It relates to a series of paintings on which Ernst first began to work in the 1930s based on the dual theme of the forest and the city (fig. 1). These richly textured canvases were created through the use of grattage, a process in which objects are placed beneath the canvas, their impression then revealed on the surface as a thin layer of paint is scraped away. For the Surrealists, this automatic technique revealed the impulses of man's unconscious.

The opulence of colour that distinguishes the present work was brought about in the same way – its fissured paint surface has been inscribed with an indelible message. However, the highly evocative title points towards a more deliberate meaning, as Werner Spies has observed: 'A prescience of imminent disaster can be detected behind Max Ernst's preoccupation with glaring suns and fire-ravaged forests ... to be replaced by an evocation of strangeness and alienation ...' (Werner Spies, in Max Ernst: A Retrospective (exhibition catalogue), Tate Gallery, London, 1991, p. 148). In the present example the omen has been fulfilled – the terrain lies petrified and desolate.

More important still, are the many interpretations suggested by the circle in the upper reaches of the canvas, an enigmatic symbol which Ernst employed throughout his career. This black oculus represents both the sun, as oracle of the terrestrial and celestial worlds, and the eye – the metaphorical eye which symbolises the pantheon of all knowledge and man's capacity for dream (fig. 2). Ernst's oneiric landscape exemplifies, therefore, the totality of the Surrealist world view.

Fig. 1, Max Ernst, The Petrified City, 1935, oil on paper laid down on panel, Manchester City Galleries

Fig. 2, Odilon Redon, Oeil-ballon, 1878, charcoal and chalk on paper, The Museum of Modern Art, New York