Coquillage
Max Ernst (Brühl 1891 – Paris 1976)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1961
Materials
Oil on canvas in a wooden frame
Measurements
115 x 155 mm
Place of origin
Paris
Order this imageCollection
Dudmaston, Shropshire
NT 814227
Caption
This work by Max Ernst is small and exquisitely beautiful while being very different to other work by this artist - a very unusual example of his painting. Although abstract, by using just a few simple shapes and colours the work strongly suggests an object sitting on a surface, a difficult thing to achieve. Is this an exercise in ambiguity? With very little information so much is suggested. When do flat shapes start to be perceived as three dimensional objects? How do we decide what something is or isn't? This painting asks a lot of questions about how we interpret the world around us.
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, Coquillage by Max Ernst (Brühl 1891 – Paris 1976), signed bottom right, 1961. A colourful portrayal of a shell/rock. This is an untypical work by one of the best known Surrealist artists, although he produced similar subjects as early as 1928. This is a very beautiful depiction of what seems to be a flower, but Ernst’s title connects it with a shell formation, a living organism which has become fossilised. There is a strange ambiguity here where the attractive colours and shapes of the flower could act as a seductive danger to unsuspecting insects. However, these possible connections do not detract from our enjoyment of this small, figurative work produced in delicate colours. Max Ernst fought in the German army during World War One, returning to his art at the end of the conflict when he went on to became one of the pioneers of the Dadaist and Surrealist movements.Three other pieces by Max Ernst are part of the collection at 2 Willow Road in London: NT 112758.1, NT 112786 and NT 112456.
Provenance
With The Redfern Gallery Ltd, 20 Cork Street, Burlington Gardens, London. W1; collection of Sir George Labouchere (1905-1999) by whom given to the National Trust in 1994
Credit line
The Sir George Labouchere Collection (National Trust)
Marks and inscriptions
18/738 (in pencil)
Makers and roles
Max Ernst (Brühl 1891 – Paris 1976), artist
