Sotheby’s London Surrealist Art Evening Sale on 5 February 2013
Surrealism by Max Ernst (est. £1.5 -2 million) was painted inNew York in 1942 a few months after the artist’s escape from war-torn Europe. Ernst’s standing as one of the foremost Surrealist artists prompted Duchamp to request from him a painting for First Papers of Surrealism, the show that he was organising in New York. This exhibition, the first devoted to Surrealism since the outbreak of war, focused on the work of Ernst, Duchamp, Masson,Matta, Breton, Dominguez, Lam, Tanguy and many other artists who had fled Europe from Nazi persecution. The work to be sold exemplifies the innovative techniques of representation that Ernst was developing in New York, and greatly influenced the next generation of American artists (it was among a group of Ernst’s paintings from 1942 said to have been admired by Jackson Pollock and Robert Motherwell) and would prove influential on the emergence of Abstract Expressionism.
Surrealism was exhibited in the Max Ernst 2005 retrospective at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Sotheby’s 2015
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Sotheby’s 2014
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Sotheby’s 2007
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Sotheby’s 2015
Max Ernst
LOT SOLD. 389,000 GBP 
Max Ernst
Estimate![]()
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800,000— 1,200,000 GBP
800,000— 1,200,000 GBP
Max Ernst
LOT SOLD. 47,500 GBP Sotheby’s 2014
Max Ernst
Estimate 150,000— 250,000 USD
Max Ernst
LOT SOLD. 84,100 GBP 
Max Ernst
LOT SOLD. 821,000 USD 
Max Ernst
LOT SOLD. 43,750 USD Sotheby’s 2007
Max Ernst
LOT SOLD. 1,059,200 USD 
Christie's 2013
Christie's 2012
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Christie's 2011
Christie's 2010
Max Ernst (1891-1976)
On parle le latin
Pr.£657,250($1,070,660)Christie's 2008
