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Dimensions: measurements 23 by 31cm. alternate measurements 9 by 12 1/8 in.
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Provenance: Julien Levy Gallery, New York
Private Collection, Europe
Acquired from the above by the present owner
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Literature: John Russell, Max Ernst, Leben und Werk, Cologne, 1966, no. 69, illustrated in the appendix (titled Soif and as dating from 1940)
Werner Spies, Max Ernst OEuvre-Katalog. Werke 1939-1953, Cologne, 1987, no. 2379, illustrated p. 39 (titled Soif)
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Notes: PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE FRENCH COLLECTION
Painted in 1941, La Comédie de la soif belongs to an important period in Ernst?s career, when his painting reached a crescendo of Surrealist fantasy, with dark forests and fantastical creatures dominating his compositions. This phase of Ernst?s painting was dominated by the technique of decalcomania, beautifully explored in the present work. Invented by Oscar Dominguez in 1935, this process immediately became as important a Surrealist technique as automatic writing, collage, frottage and grattage. The technique of decalcomania consists of covering the canvas with a layer of pigment and then pressing onto it with a smooth surface such as glass. A rich surface pattern that emerges as a result has the appearance of corals, rocks or imaginary creatures. The Surrealists, and particularly Max Ernst, instantly found inspiration in this new process. In the present work, this technique has resulted in a dreamlike, otherworldly composition dominated by a lion-like animal in the foreground, surrounded by a number of fantastical creatures, a scene that would have greatly appealed to the artist?s vivid imagination. ?Decalcomania was what might be termed an intersubjective method, comparable to the automatic writing, the dream protocols and the cadavres exquis of the late 1920s. Yet with Max Ernst, the game led to a marvellous expansion of his visionary world? employed with great sophistication and supplemented by interpretative additions by hand? (Max Ernst (exhibition catalogue), Tate Gallery, London, 1991, p. 230).
