39 Facts About Max Ernst

Max Ernst was a German painter, sculptor, printmaker, graphic artist, and poet.

Max Ernst is noted for his unconventional drawing methods as well as for creating novels and pamphlets using the method of collages.

Max Ernst served as a soldier for four years during World War I, and this experience left him shocked, traumatised and critical of the modern world.

Max Ernst began painting in 1909 while studying at the University of Bonn, and later joined the Die Rheinischen Expressionisten group of artists.

Max Ernst had a fascination with birds, often including his alter ego, Loplop, a bird, in his work.

Max Ernst eventually settled in France and achieved financial success in the 1950s.

Max Ernst was born in Bruhl, near Cologne, the third of nine children of a middle-class Catholic family.

Max Ernst's father Philipp was a teacher of the deaf and an amateur painter, a devout Christian and a strict disciplinarian.

Max Ernst inspired in Max a penchant for defying authority, while his interest in painting and sketching in nature influenced Max to take up painting.

In 1909, Max Ernst enrolled in the University of Bonn to read philosophy, art history, literature, psychology and psychiatry.

Max Ernst visited asylums and became fascinated with the art work of the mentally ill patients; he started painting that year, producing sketches in the garden of the Bruhl castle, and portraits of his sister and himself.

In 1911, Max Ernst befriended August Macke and joined his Die Rheinischen Expressionisten group of artists, deciding to become an artist.

Max Ernst's work was exhibited that year together with that of the Das Junge Rheinland group, at Galerie Feldman in Cologne, and then in several group exhibitions in 1913.

Max Ernst soon married art history student Luise Straus, of Jewish ancestry, whom he had met in 1914.

In 1919, Max Ernst visited Paul Klee in Munich and studied paintings by Giorgio de Chirico.

Max Ernst and Luise's son Ulrich 'Jimmy' Max Ernst was born on 24 June 1920; he became a painter.

In 1922, unable to secure the necessary papers, Max Ernst entered France illegally and settled into a menage a trois with Eluard and his wife Gala in Paris suburb Saint-Brice, leaving behind his wife and son.

In 1923, the Eluards moved to a new home in Eaubonne, near Paris, where Max Ernst painted numerous murals.

Max Ernst soon asked his wife and Max Ernst to join him; both had to sell paintings to finance the trip.

Max Ernst went to Dusseldorf and sold a large number of his works to a long-time friend, Johanna Ey, owner of gallery Das Junge Rheinland.

Max Ernst returned to Paris in late 1924 and soon signed a contract with Jacques Viot that allowed him to paint full-time.

In 1925, Max Ernst established a studio at 22, rue Tourlaque.

In 1925, Max Ernst invented a graphic art technique called frottage, which uses pencil rubbings of objects as a source of images.

Max Ernst used this technique in his famous painting Forest and Dove.

Max Ernst explored with the technique of decalcomania, which involves pressing paint between two surfaces.

Max Ernst was active, along with fellow Surrealists, at the Atelier 17.

Max Ernst developed a fascination with birds that was prevalent in his work.

Max Ernst's alter ego in paintings, which he called Loplop, was a bird.

Max Ernst suggested that this alter-ego was an extension of himself stemming from an early confusion of birds and humans.

Max Ernst said that one night when he was young, he woke up and found that his beloved bird had died; a few minutes later, his father announced that his sister was born.

Max Ernst drew a great deal of controversy with his 1926 painting The Virgin Chastises the infant Jesus before Three Witnesses: Andre Breton, Paul Eluard, and the Painter.

In 1927, Max Ernst married Marie-Berthe Aurenche and it is thought his relationship with her may have inspired the erotic subject matter of The Kiss and other works of that year.

Max Ernst appeared in the 1930 film L'Age d'Or, directed by the Surrealist Luis Bunuel.

Max Ernst began to sculpt in 1934 and spent time with Alberto Giacometti.

In September 1939, the outbreak of World War II caused Max Ernst to be interned as an "undesirable foreigner" in Camp des Milles, near Aix-en-Provence, along with fellow Surrealist, Hans Bellmer, who had recently emigrated to Paris.

Max Ernst had been living with his lover and fellow Surrealist painter, Leonora Carrington who, not knowing whether he would return, saw no option but to sell their house to repay their debts and leave for Spain.

Sedona proved an inspiration for the artists and for Max Ernst, who compiled his book Beyond Painting and completed his sculptural masterpiece Capricorn while living in Sedona.

Max Ernst died at the age of 84 on 1 April 1976 in Paris and was interred at Pere Lachaise Cemetery.

The Max Ernst Museum opened in 2005 in his home town Bruhl, Germany.