Max Ernst (1891-1976)

The compact size of his watercolor suggests that Ernst painted it during the final months of the First World War, while he was serving as an army lieutenant on the Eastern front. In the few works Ernst was able to produce during the war there is evidence of the pre-war styles of Cubism, Futurism, Orphism and Expressionism. His first encounter with Dada occurred in mid-1918, when his fiancé Luise Straus (whom he married in October) sent him some publications relating to Dada activities in Berlin. However, it was not until the end of the war in November that he immersed himself in the new movement. The artist wrote in his autobiography: "Max Ernst died the 1st of August 1914. He resuscitated the 11th of November 1918 as a young man aspiring to become a magician and to find the myth of his time" (in R. Motherwell, ed., Max Ernst: Beyond Painting, New York, 1948, p. 29.)