Artwork Information

An important figure in the Surrealist movement in Paris in the 1920s, Ernst drew on the irrational, portentous qualities of dreams, often drawing on his own memories of childhood. In 'Beyond Painting' (1948) Ernst quoted at length a passage in the Trattato della pittura, in which Leonardo suggested that indeterminate visual structures, such as clouds and stains on a wall, could be used as starting-points for artistic invention. This closely reflected the principal of frottage, a recurring technique in Ernst's work.