Live Auction 17193Impressionist & Modern Art Day Sale
Max Ernst (1891-1976)
Lot 372 PROPERTY OF A PRIVATE ITALIAN COLLECTOR

Max Ernst (1891-1976)

Grand paysage Américain - Arizona

Closed19 June 2019

Price Realised

GBP 102,500

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Max Ernst (1891-1976)
Grand paysage Américain - Arizona
signed 'max ernst' (lower right); signed and inscribed 'Max Ernst grand paysage américain' (on the reverse)
oil on panel
9 3/8 x 13 in. (23.8 x 33 cm.)
Painted circa 1955

Aram D. Mouradian, Paris.
Redfern Gallery, London.
Anonymous sale, Sotheby's, London, 1 December 1965, lot 95.
Brook Street Gallery, London, by whom acquired at the above sale.
Private collection, Italy.
Acquired from the above by the present owner in the 1970s.

Specialist note

This work will be included in the forthcoming volume of the Max Ernst Catalogue raisonné, currently being prepared by Werner Spies in collaboration with Sigrid Metken and Jürgen Pech.

Hill

Seen with the naked eye
this hill is twice as young
as its age

For your beautiful naked eyes
it decks itself in laden plumes
and a secret everyday sky

but
seen through a temperament
it turns to flame
turns purple
roars
trumpets and rumbles
in the silence of space
like
an enraged pyramid
which twice in every century laughs
laughs
its white and cloudy laugh
laughs
without rival or reason
It is then that its terrible song of love
explodes between two layers of ice

Max Ernst