MAX ERNST (1891-1976)

German born painter, sculptor and printmaker Max Ernst was a leading Surrealist artist and had earlier played a major role in the Dadaist movement. Ernst became friends with the highly-accomplished goldsmith François Hugo, around 1934, when he stayed at the home of his wife Princess Ruspoli in Vigoleno in Italy. Separated during the Second World War when Ernst was captured as a prisoner of war, the friends were reunited years later and spoke again of the idea of working together in 1957. In 1959, on Ernst’s return from Saint-Clair, he brought the first fourteen pieces created from plastiline, producing another eight a year later. Requiring a lightness and finesse he asked that Hugo use the same repoussé technique as for the plates he had made for Pablo Picasso; hammering the precious metal into specifically cast moulds taken from the artist’s models. Originally made of pure gold, Hugo instead began to use 23 carat gold, which was firmer and able to hold shape more effectively, continuing with for his later gold works. Ernst designed thirty-four pieces of jewellery in total which are often referred to collectively as “masks”, echoing the artist’s interest in tribal forms. We are delighted to have four of Ernst’s lustrous and beautifully decorated geometrical “mask” medallions, three of which come directly from the artist’s family.