Max Ernst | Terre Écossaise, 1935

"Terre Écossaise" was painted by German painter, sculptor, graphic artist and poet Max Ernst (1891-1976) in 1935.

He had served in an artillery division of the German army during world war one. This experience was deeply traumatic.

Ernst used Freuds dream theories as a way of dealing with his trauma.

This exploration of the unconscious was expressed through his art.

Ernst's son Jimmy Ernst, a well-known German/American abstract expressionist painter, who lived on the south shore of Long Island, died in 1984.

His memoirs, A Not-So-Still Life, were published shortly before his death.

Max Ernst's grandson Eric and his granddaughter Amy are both artists and writers.

Max Ernst's life and career are examined in Peter Schamoni's 1991 documentary Max Ernst. Dedicated to the art historian Werner Spies, it was assembled from interviews with Ernst, stills of his paintings and sculptures, and the memoirs of his wife Dorothea Tanning and son Jimmy. The 101-minute German film was released on DVD with English subtitles by Image Entertainment.

The Max Ernst Museum opened in 2005 in his home town Brühl, Germany. It is housed in a late-classicist 1844 building integrated with a modern glass pavilion. The historic ballroom was once a popular social venue visited by Ernst in his youth.

The collection spans 70 years of his career including paintings, drawings, frottages, collages, nearly the entire lithographic works, over 70 bronze sculptures and more than 700 documents and photographs by Man Ray, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Lee Miller, and others.

The core of the collection dates back to 1969 with works donated to the City of Brühl by the artist. Thirty-six paintings, gifts from the artist to his fourth wife Dorothea Tanning, are on permanent loan from the Kreissparkasse Köln.

Some noteworthy works include the sculptures The King playing with the Queen (1944) and Teaching Staff for a School of Murderers (1967).

The museum also host temporary exhibitions by other artist.

The Menil Collection, in Houston, Texas houses a significant collection of surrealist art including well over 100 pieces by Max Ernst.

Notable paintings include In Praise of Freedom (1926), Loplop Presents Loplop (1930), Day and Night (1941–1942), Surrealism and Painting (1942), Euclid (1945), A Swarm of Bees in the Palais de Justice (1960), The Marriage of Heaven and Earth (1964).

Ernst's work in the Menil Collection is typically exhibited a few pieces at a time along with other surrealist art in the collection on a rotating basis.

Other works by Hans Thoma

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