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Max Ernst

German artist (1891–1976)

  • 11 min read
  • 4 chapters
Max Ernst
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Ernst was born in Brühl. He began painting in 1909 while studying at the University of Bonn, and later joined Die Rheinischen Expressionisten group of artists. Ernst's work often had ironic juxtapositions of grotesque elements with cubist and expressionist motifs. He had a fascination with birds, often including his alter ego, Loplop, a bird, in his work. He eventually settled in France and achieved financial success in the 1950s. He died in Paris on 1 April 1976.

Early life

Max Ernst was born in Brühl, south of Cologne, the third of nine children of a middle-class Catholic family. His father Philipp was a teacher of the deaf and an amateur painter, a devout Christian and a strict disciplinarian. He 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. He visited asylums and became fascinated with the artwork of the mentally ill patients; he also began painting that year, producing sketches in the garden of the Brühl castle, and portraits of his sister and himself. In 1911, Max befriended August Macke and joined his Die Rheinischen Expressionisten group of artists, deciding to become an artist.

In 1912, Max Ernst visited the Sonderbund exhibition in Cologne, where works by Pablo Picasso and post-Impressionists such as Vincent van Gogh and Paul Gauguin profoundly influenced him. His 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. In his paintings of this period, Ernst adopted an ironic style that juxtaposed grotesque elements alongside Cubist and Expressionist motifs.

In 1914, Ernst met Hans Arp in Cologne. The two became friends and their relationship lasted for fifty years. After Ernst completed his studies in the summer, his life was interrupted by World War I. Ernst was drafted and served both on the Western and the Eastern Fronts. The effect of the war on Ernst was devastating; in his autobiography, he wrote of his time in the army thus: "On the first of August 1914 M[ax].E[rnst]. died. He was resurrected on the eleventh of November 1918". For a brief period on the Western Front, Ernst was assigned to chart maps, which allowed him to continue painting. Several German Expressionist painters died in action during the war, among them August Macke and Franz Marc.

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