Oil on canvas, stretched and framed. Featuring a surrealist landscape scene. Signed max ernst on the lower right corner. Attributed to Max Ernst (1891-1976, German). 53.5 x 38 cm (21.1 x 15.0 inches). Framed size: 60 x 44 cm (23.6 x 17.3 inches). PROVENANCE: Southern Ontario estate

Max Ernst (1891-1976) was a prominent German avant-garde artist who helped found both Dadaism and Surrealism. He worked in a variety of media including film, collage, painting, and frottage—a technique wherein he collected pencil rubbings of different objects surfaces as source material. “Creativity is that marvelous capacity to grasp mutually distinct realities and draw a spark from their juxtaposition,” he once reflected. Born on April 2, 1891 in Bruhl, Germany, Ernst and his friend the artist Jean (Hans) Arp began creating Dadaist works in Cologne during the late 1910s. Moving to Paris in 1922, he entered the milieu of several artists, including Paul Éluard and André Breton. Motivated by Surrealist doctrine, the artist made the dreamlike paintings The Elephant Celebes (1921) and Oedipus Rex (1922). Ernst moved to New York with his wife the famed art collector Peggy Guggenheim in the 1940s. In New York, he made one most acclaimed works Europe After the Rain (1940-1942), a psychological interpretation of war-torn Europe. Ernst later left Guggenheim to marry the young artist Dorothea Tanning in 1946. In 1954, he received the Grand Prize for painting at the Venice Biennale, and a major retrospective of his work followed the next year at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York. The artist died on April 1, 1976 in Paris, France. Today, Ernst’s works are held in the collections of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Tate Gallery in London, and the Max Ernst Museum in Bruhl, Germany, among others.

All lots that do not carry established documented provenance nor any past record of auction history record are described in the catalog as attributed .

All authorship of items in this catalog are described according to the following terms:

Signed [Artist Name] : In cases in which the signature is legible in the lot, this work is described as-is with no attributions given.

By [Artist Name] : The work is by the artist.

Attributed to [Artist Name] : The work may be ascribed to the artist on the basis of style, but there may be some question as to actual authorship.

In the manner of [Artist Name] : The work was executed by an unknown hand, but was designed deliberately to emulate the style of the artist.

After [Artist Name] : The work was executed by an unknown hand, but is a deliberate copy of a known work by the artist.

Circle of [Artist Name] : A work of the period of the artist showing his influence, closely associated with the artist but not necessarily his pupil.

Follower of [Artist Name]: A work by a pupil or a follower of the artist (not necessarily a pupil).

American, 19th century : This work was executed by an unknown hand, and can only be identified by origin (i.e., region, period).