Les princes dorment mal

細節

Max Ernst (1891-1976)
Les princes dorment mal
signed and dated 'MAX ERNST 57' (lower right); signed, titled and dated 'max ernst 1957 les princes dorment mal' (on the reverse)
oil on canvas
45½ x 353/8in. (115.5 x 90.2cm.)
Painted in 1957

來源

Galerie Creuzevault, Paris.
The Mayor Gallery, London (4507).
Peggy Hennessy, Paris.

出版

M. Ernst, Propos et Présence, Paris 1959, p. 18.
W. Spies, S. & G. Metken, Max Ernst, Werke 1954-1963, Cologne 1998, no. 3223 (illustrated p. 93).
E. Trier, Schriften zu Max Ernst, Cologne 1993, pp. 62 & 169.

展覽

Paris, Galerie Creuzevault, Max Ernst, January-February 1958.
London, The Mayor Gallery, Max Ernst, April 1959, no. 13.
New York, Museum of Modern Art, Max Ernst, March-May 1961, no. 132 (illustrated p. 48; loan no. 61.212). This exhibition later travelled to Chicago, The Art Institute, June-July 1961 and London, Tate Gallery, September-October 1961, no. 177.
Cologne, Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, Max Ernst, December 1962-March 1963, no. 104. This exhibition later travelled to Zurich, Kunsthaus, March-April 1963.

注意事項

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

拍品專文

"I never impose a title on a picture; I wait for the title to impose itself. After painting it, I often remain - and sometimes for quite a while - haunted by the picture, and this obsession does not leave me until the title appears as if by magic. Quite ordinary events of everyday life frequently come to my aid. An example of this picture I once finished just before going on holiday. It pursued me, demanding a name, not giving me a moment's of peace. Pondering over a possible title, I was strolling beside the lake in Geneva when I was accosted by a pleasant-looking woman who addressed me in the following terms:'The prince eats badly'. I was intrigued. 'It isn't the name of a restaurant', she went on. I became suspicious.'Is it the name of a street?' I asked her.'Yes', she answered, and moved away. The next day -I had forgotten the incident- I met another pleasant-looking woman. She began: 'The prince...' and I continued '...eats badly', to which she responded with a smile of complicity. By turning it into verse, the meaning of the phrase became clear: The prince eats badly
In his marriage bed
The title of my picture flashed through my brain at that very moment. It would be called Les princes dorment mal (Princes sleep badly).
(Max Ernst, 'La nudité de la femme est plus sage que l'enseignement du philosophe', 1959, in Ecritures, p. 336-337.)