Max Ernst, Composition (Spies/Leppien 222), Histoire Naturelle, Limited Edition Lithograph

Collotype from frottage on vélin paper. Paper size: 19.625 x 12.75 inches. Excellent condition. Unsigned and unnumbered, as issued. Notes: From the album, Max Ernst, Histoire Naturelle, 1972. Published and printed by Verlag Gerd Hatje, Stuttgart, 1972. Excerpted from the album (translated from German), The first edition of the Histoire Naturelle appeared in 1926 by Éditions Jeanne Bucher, Paris, in an edition of 306 examples. Hans Arp wrote the introduction. This new edition appeared in 1972. The German edition contains 350 examples, of which 111 examples contain an original lithograph in three colors signed and numbered by the artist, which was printed by Pierre Chave in Vence, France. The preferred edition is numbered from 1-111, the normal edition of 112-350. Some roman numbered copies also contain the original lithograph and are not intended for trade. For the new printing, the dimensions of the boards increased by one centimeter. Instead of the Roman numbering Arabic numbering was used. Verlag Gerd Hatje, Stuttgart.

MAX ERNST (1891-1976) was a German (naturalised American in 1948 and French in 1958) painter, sculptor, printmaker, graphic artist, and poet. A prolific artist, Ernst was a primary pioneer of the Dada movement and Surrealism in Europe. He had no formal artistic training, but his experimental attitude toward the making of art resulted in his invention of frottage—a technique that uses pencil rubbings of textured objects and relief surfaces to create images—and grattage, an analogous technique in which paint is scraped across canvas to reveal the imprints of the objects placed beneath. Ernst is noted for his unconventional drawing methods as well as for creating novels and pamphlets using the method of collages. He served as a soldier for four years during World War I, and this experience left him shocked, traumatised and critical of the modern world. During World War II he was designated an "undesirable foreigner" while living in France. Ernst was in the milieu of Picasso, Dali, and Miro.