23-018 Max Ernst “Apres Moi le Sommeil” 1958 Litho 1970

“Après moi le sommeil” (After Me, Sleep) is a 1958 painting by the German artist Max Ernst. Offered here is an offset lithograph, probably from the Centre Pompidou Museum gift shop, where the original painting is held in their permanent collection (inv. AM 3762 P). This litho was printed in 1970 by Editions Braun S. A. Mulhouse, Paris, and numbered #2107 on the verso. 15×18 inches as framed in matte white wood.

Max Ernst was a German Dadaist and Surrealist. His experimental attitude toward the making of art resulted in his invention of frottage—a technique that uses pencil rubbings of objects as a source of images. This painting depicts a large bird in flight over a sunset landscape with a large beach umbrella (?) in the foreground.

This painting was made for the surrealist poet Paul Éluard as indicated on the verso of the original. In 1920, Ernst and Éluard lived together in France with Éluard’s wife Helena Diakonova (Gala) in a ménage à trois.