Max Ernst

Galerie Alexander Iolas, New York (acquired by 1958)

Brooks Jackson, New York

Galerie Nathalie Seroussi, Paris and Geneva

Acquired from the above in 2000

Houston, Contemporary Arts Museum, The Disquieting Muse: Surrealism, 1958, illustrated in the catalogue

Werner Spies, Sigrid & Günter Metken, Max Ernst, Werke 1925-1929, Cologne, 1987, no.1141, illustrated p. 181

Good condition. Paper laid down on linen. Under ultra-violet light, there is retouching scattered throughout is in the sky, where formerly unstable areas of the artist's medium have been consolidated with modest-sized dots. There are also two small retouchings towards the lower left corner, a small retouching to the right of the oval shaped wood structure in the lower right quadrant and a small retouching in the Ernst signature.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Painted in 1927, Forêt belongs to one of the most creative and groundbreaking periods in Max Ernst's oeuvre, marked by a constant stream of technical experimentation and invention. It was at this time also that the artist established his personal mythology, his visual universe of themes and images that were to become central to his entire career.

Throughout 1927, Ernst's work was dominated by images of the natural world, such as forests, birds and seashells, and it was in the series of Forêt paintings of the 1920s that Ernst for the first time fully explored his newly developed grattage technique. His experimentations with ways of applying pigment onto the surface resulted in the discovery of frottage in 1925. Fascinated by the rich texture of wooden floorboards, he would place sheets of paper onto their surface and rub over them with graphite, thus arriving at fantastic, unexpected compositions. In the present work the glowing colours of the setting sun penetrate powerfully through the dense forest.

Alexander Iolas, the noted collector and dealer of Surrealist art, was an early owner of the present work. Iolas championed artists as varied as Matta, Victor Brauner, Joseph Cornell, Niki de Saint-Phalle and, in particular, Max Ernst and René Magritte before they came to international prominence. After an early and successful career as a pianist and ballet-dancer, Iolas opened galleries in New York and Paris in the 1940s. His foresight into the intrinsic quality of an artist's work was invaluable to the development of Surrealist art.