馬克斯·恩斯特

Joë Bousquet, Carcassonne (until at least 1946)
Galerie André François Petit, Paris
Galerie Beno d'Incelli, Paris
Private Collection, USA (acquired from the above in 1963. Sold: Sotheby's, Paris, 13th December 2007, lot 34)
Purchased at the above sale by the present owner

Paris, Galerie André François Petit, Bellmer, Brauner, Dalí, Delvaux, Ernst, Magritte, Tanguy, 1962, illustrated in the catalogue
Brühl, Max Ernst Museum, 2008 (on loan )
Stockholm, Moderna Museet & Humlebæk, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Max Ernst. Dream and Revolution, 2008-09, illustrated in colour in the catalogue

Werner Spies, Max Ernst, Œuvre-Katalog, Werke 1906-1925, Cologne, 1975, no. 656, illustrated p. 341

The canvas is unlined and there is no evidence of retouching visible under ultra-violet light. Apart from some small scattered spots of paint loss in the areas of thin impasto, this work is in very good original condition. Colours: Overall fairly accurate in the printed catalogue illustration, although slightly stronger in the original.
"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. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Facilité was probably painted shortly before Surrealism was officially proclaimed as a movement in 1924. By this time Ernst was fully settled among the avant-garde artists working in Paris, and was associated with the group gathered around the magazine Littérature, which included André Breton, Louis Aragon and Man Ray. Having returned to the medium of oil painting after years of experimenting with collage, Ernst turned his focus to the power of the image, more than the medium. Oil allowed Ernst to invent his motif from his unconscious rather than construct images using parts culled from several sources. Diane Waldman observed: ‘What Dada had undone, Surrealism remade, using the intangible qualities of paint and canvas to convey the equally intangible realm of dream’ (D. Waldman, Max Ernst, A Retrospective (exhibition catalogue), The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, 1975, pp. 28-29).

 

Ernst produced some of his most haunting and powerful works during this period, many of which have become key emblems of displacement and psychological doubt in the art of the twentieth century. According to Waldman, in these paintings there is ‘more contact with the real world than in the earlier collages, although this contact is irrational and enigmatic’ (ibid., p. 32). Many of his paintings of this period treat the subject of a nude female figure, either alone or in a mysterious coupling with her male counterpart. In the present work the male and the female seem to be entranced in a ritual of dance, inhabiting a dream-like world reminiscent of the ocean floor.

 

The first owner of Facilité was Joë Bousquet (1897-1950), an important collector of Surrealist art who was particularly fascinated by Max Ernst and owned a large number of his paintings, as well as works by Salvador Dalí, André Masson and Hans Bellmer. Bousquet, a French poet, was wounded during the First World War and remained paralysed for the rest of his life. He carried on a correspondence with many writers and friends, including Ernst, Louis Aragon, André Gide and Paul Eluard. This particular work hung above his bed in Carcassonne (fig. 1).