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Lot Essay
Gypsy Rose Lee and Max Ernst: an improbable pair. One, the most popular (some may say notorious) strip-tease artist the world has ever known; a flamboyant and bold woman with a penchant for luxury and fame. The other, a profound and ingenious painter who lived in constant awe of the universe and was inspired by the irrational. The present painting, a portrait of the former by the latter, may provide some clues about the bond that these two exceptional individuals shared.
The early 1940s marked the beginning of a new life for Max Ernst. Fleeing from the outbreak of World War II to the United States, he found himself thrown into the midst of the New York art world. This was not an easy circumstance for a German-born artist who lacked money and most importantly, a dealer. Despite his earlier success, there seemed to be no apparent demand for his work and his first American show at the Valentin Gallery in 1942 was a failure as far as sales were concerned. These bleak times for Ernst, however, were destined to improve and eventually his first American client appeared; Miss Gypsy Rose Lee, the pioneer of American striptease. Gypsy Rose first purchased the painting A Maiden's Dream about a Lake (fig. 1) and shortly thereafter she commissioned Ernst to paint her portrait.
A seemingly decadent and vicarious woman, Gypsy Rose did display her substantial intellect in writings which were featured in The American Mercury, Collier's, The New Yorker, and Harper's. She was self-assured and outspoken--her instinctively defiant nature and independence were qualities Ernst must have found very alluring.
In 1943 Ernst withdrew from the frenetic art scene in New York, which he felt stunted his impulses and creativity, and retreated to the countryside of Sedona, Arizona (fig. 2). Sedona freed Ernst from the constraints of the city and encouraged him to create a new visual vocabulary inspired by the untainted and remarkable beauty of the landscape.
Ernst had always found it a good plan to withdraw to an ark of his own devising in some remote countryside, and in 1943 one countryside suggested itself above all others; Arizona. Arizona offered isolation, a celestial climate--it was deeply moving for him to come across a landscape which had precisely the visionary quality that he had sought for on canvas (J. Russell, Life and Work, London, 1966, p. 140).
In the present painting, the fantastic forms and irrational coloring found in the mountains around Sedona provide a backdrop for Gypsy Rose who presides majestically over the scene as if she were in fact performing on a stage.
Foliage merges with human anatomy and the figures become as essential to the landscape as the trees and lake-reflected vista. "There is no limit to the ambiguity of Max Ernst's imagery, or to the dances in which he leads us as that imagery first defines, and then un-defines itself for the inquisitive, definition-hungry explorer" (ibid., p. 142).
Gypsy Rose Lee is indeed filled with visual innuendoes. In the midst of this vivid scene one can distinguish forms, many of which can be typically associated with Gypsy Rose. Phallic imagery rise from the mountains. Could it be a male voyeur peering at her from above? A peacock, known as a symbol of vanity and pride seems to be eating out of another female figure's hand in the foreground. Despite its fierce countenance, a beast-like creature crouches beneath Gypsy Rose in a posture of submission.
The present picture exhibits Ernst's great skill and sophistication with the technique of decalcomanie, a semi-automatic technique in which a sheet of paper or glass is placed on the painted surface and then pulled away to create a chaotic swirl of color and texture. In this case it is likely Ernst utilized actual leaves to transfer the paint onto the canvas to create extraordinarily evocative formations and marbled textures.
Decalcomanie was what might be termed an intersubjective method comparable to automatic writing, the dream protocols and the cadavres exquis of the 1920s. Yet with Max Ernst, the game led to a marvelous expansion of his visionary world (ed. W. Spies, Max Ernst, exh. cat., Tate Gallery, London, 1991, p. 230).
(fig 1) Max Ernst, A Maiden's Dream about a Lake, 1940.
Private Collection.
(fig. 2) Rock formations near Sedona, Arizona.
(fig. 3) Max Ernst, New York, 1942.
(Photograph by Berenice Abbott).
(fig. 4) Gypsy Rose Lee at home.
The early 1940s marked the beginning of a new life for Max Ernst. Fleeing from the outbreak of World War II to the United States, he found himself thrown into the midst of the New York art world. This was not an easy circumstance for a German-born artist who lacked money and most importantly, a dealer. Despite his earlier success, there seemed to be no apparent demand for his work and his first American show at the Valentin Gallery in 1942 was a failure as far as sales were concerned. These bleak times for Ernst, however, were destined to improve and eventually his first American client appeared; Miss Gypsy Rose Lee, the pioneer of American striptease. Gypsy Rose first purchased the painting A Maiden's Dream about a Lake (fig. 1) and shortly thereafter she commissioned Ernst to paint her portrait.
A seemingly decadent and vicarious woman, Gypsy Rose did display her substantial intellect in writings which were featured in The American Mercury, Collier's, The New Yorker, and Harper's. She was self-assured and outspoken--her instinctively defiant nature and independence were qualities Ernst must have found very alluring.
In 1943 Ernst withdrew from the frenetic art scene in New York, which he felt stunted his impulses and creativity, and retreated to the countryside of Sedona, Arizona (fig. 2). Sedona freed Ernst from the constraints of the city and encouraged him to create a new visual vocabulary inspired by the untainted and remarkable beauty of the landscape.
Ernst had always found it a good plan to withdraw to an ark of his own devising in some remote countryside, and in 1943 one countryside suggested itself above all others; Arizona. Arizona offered isolation, a celestial climate--it was deeply moving for him to come across a landscape which had precisely the visionary quality that he had sought for on canvas (J. Russell, Life and Work, London, 1966, p. 140).
In the present painting, the fantastic forms and irrational coloring found in the mountains around Sedona provide a backdrop for Gypsy Rose who presides majestically over the scene as if she were in fact performing on a stage.
Foliage merges with human anatomy and the figures become as essential to the landscape as the trees and lake-reflected vista. "There is no limit to the ambiguity of Max Ernst's imagery, or to the dances in which he leads us as that imagery first defines, and then un-defines itself for the inquisitive, definition-hungry explorer" (ibid., p. 142).
Gypsy Rose Lee is indeed filled with visual innuendoes. In the midst of this vivid scene one can distinguish forms, many of which can be typically associated with Gypsy Rose. Phallic imagery rise from the mountains. Could it be a male voyeur peering at her from above? A peacock, known as a symbol of vanity and pride seems to be eating out of another female figure's hand in the foreground. Despite its fierce countenance, a beast-like creature crouches beneath Gypsy Rose in a posture of submission.
The present picture exhibits Ernst's great skill and sophistication with the technique of decalcomanie, a semi-automatic technique in which a sheet of paper or glass is placed on the painted surface and then pulled away to create a chaotic swirl of color and texture. In this case it is likely Ernst utilized actual leaves to transfer the paint onto the canvas to create extraordinarily evocative formations and marbled textures.
Decalcomanie was what might be termed an intersubjective method comparable to automatic writing, the dream protocols and the cadavres exquis of the 1920s. Yet with Max Ernst, the game led to a marvelous expansion of his visionary world (ed. W. Spies, Max Ernst, exh. cat., Tate Gallery, London, 1991, p. 230).
(fig 1) Max Ernst, A Maiden's Dream about a Lake, 1940.
Private Collection.
(fig. 2) Rock formations near Sedona, Arizona.
(fig. 3) Max Ernst, New York, 1942.
(Photograph by Berenice Abbott).
(fig. 4) Gypsy Rose Lee at home.