Skip to main content

Max Ernst More Prints

American, German, French, 1891-1976

Born in Germany in 1891, later naturalized as an American, then a French citizen, Max Ernst was a pioneer in the Dada and Surrealist movements, the boundaries of which he pushed with his unconventional methods of printmaking, drawing and collage.

Ernst had no formal art training — and that may have been his greatest asset. He produced his first work following four years serving in World War I. At the time, he was in Cologne, Germany, working closely with fellow Dada pioneers Jean Arp and Johannes Baargeld. His output during this period consisted largely of collages, which allowed him to represent the shards, rubble and explosions from his traumatic wartime experience.

In 1922, Ernst moved to France, where he soon became affiliated with Surrealism, the avant-garde art movement taking shape in Paris. Alongside Man Ray, Joan Miró and a couple of others, Ernst was among the first visual artists to experiment with imagery and techniques associated with Surrealism.

Ernst’s greatest contribution to the Surrealist movement was his invention of frottage (French for “rubbing”), wherein an artist rubs a pencil or crayon over a paper atop a textured surface, and later grattage (French for “scraping”), where a similar technique is applied with paint. Both methods showcase Ernst’s fascination with the unconscious and serendipitous elements of artistic creation, a theme that connected the Dadaists and the Surrealists. Ernst had deep knowledge of psychoanalysis and Sigmund Freud’s dream theories, which were big influences on Surrealists. He was among the first Surrealists to use Freud’s work to examine his own creative impulses. He also published a series of books of his collages, all of which were deeply symbolic and often philosophical.

When Germany occupied France during World War II, Ernst escaped to America with the help of patron and collector Peggy Guggenheim, whom he married in 1941. While living in New York, Ernst’s work and techniques proved instrumental in inspiring the early development of Abstract Expressionism — influencing Robert Motherwell and Jackson Pollock in particular. He later moved to Sedona, Arizona, where he lived with his fourth wife, Dorothea Tanning, a fellow Surrealist and prolific visual artist and poet.

While Ernst and Tanning are largely responsible for Sedona’s reputation as an artist colony, they relocated to France in the 1950s and remained until Ernst’s death in Paris in 1976.

Find original Max Ernst art on 1stDibs.

to
4
4
2
1
1
Overall Height
to
Overall Width
to
4
4
1
3
90
543
411
150
141
3
2
1
Artist: Max Ernst
"Terre des nébuleuses" by Max Ernst, Blue, Fog, Surrealism
By Max Ernst
Located in Köln, DE
Etching and aquatint in colours (colour variation) by Max Ernst. "Terre des nébuleuses", 1965 38 x 27,5 cm Copy essai 1/1
Category

1960s Surrealist Max Ernst More Prints

Materials

Etching, Aquatint

Texts and Letters - Etching Surrealism German
By Max Ernst
Located in London, GB
This work is hand signed in pencil by the artist at the lower right margin "max ernst". This etching was printed for "Texte und Briefe" of Antonin Artaud. The work was printed in 196...
Category

1960s Surrealist Max Ernst More Prints

Materials

Etching

"Bonjour" by Max Ernst, Good Day, Surrealism, Light Colors, Figurative
By Max Ernst
Located in Köln, DE
Etching in colours by Max Ernst. "Bonjour", 1966 66,5 x 50,1 cm Copy 7/99 Edition of 111 copies (approx.)
Category

1960s Surrealist Max Ernst More Prints

Materials

Etching, Aquatint

Hibou - Lithograph by Max Ernst - 1955
By Max Ernst
Located in Roma, IT
Hand signed and numbered. Edition of 220 prints. Published by Guilde de la Gravure, Geneva and Paris. Ref. Cat. Brusberg n. 76. Very good conditions.
Category

1950s Surrealist Max Ernst More Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Related Items
Ernst Fuchs Sphinx in Pharao Surreal Color Etching Vienna Fantastic Realism 1967
By Ernst Fuchs
Located in Meinisberg, CH
Ernst Fuchs (Austrian, 1930 - 2015) Sphinx in Pharao Sheet Nr. 6 from the Folio “Die Sieben Bilder und Sprüche der Sphinx”, published in Autumn of 1967 by Galerie Sydow in Frankfurt, Germany. • Aquatint Etching • Ed. 79/99 • Sheet ca. 59 x 41.5 cm • Plate signed • Signed & numbered by the artist in pencil Worldwide shipping is complimentary - There are no additional charges for handling & delivery. Ernst Fuchs was an Austrian painter, draftsman, printmaker, sculptor, architect, stage designer, composer, poet, and one of the founders of the Vienna School of Fantastic Realism. I discovered him through H.R. Giger ‘s work, who himself was greatly inspired by the creations of Fuchs and on several occasions exhibited his friend ‘s art in his museum, the Château St-Germain, Gruyères, Switzerland. I actually own the original folio box...
Category

1960s Surrealist Max Ernst More Prints

Materials

Paper, Ink, Aquatint, Etching

La divine comédie Purgatoire 33 Dante purifié by Salvador Dali - Print multiple
By Salvador Dalí­
Located in Geneva, CH
Color engraving on wood from the Dali's portfolio " The Divin Comedy" Lithograph without numbering Framed. Total size with frame 30x38 cm In perfect condition
Category

1960s Surrealist Max Ernst More Prints

Materials

Engraving, Lithograph

Georg Baselitz, Serpentine (Blue): Signed etching with sugar lift aquatint
By Georg Baselitz
Located in Hamburg, DE
Georg Baselitz (German, b. 1938) Serpentine (Blue), 2022 Medium: Etching with sugar lift aquatint on wove paper Dimensions: 53 × 39 cm (20 9/10 × 15 2/5 in) Edition of 50: Hand-signe...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Neo-Expressionist Max Ernst More Prints

Materials

Etching, Aquatint

Art Deco French signed Lithograph style of Icart
Located in FR
Art Deco signed Print from the Louis Icart era of 'Les Elegantes' Signed in pencil by the artist and Numbered 67 Original print produced for the artist ...
Category

1920s Art Deco Max Ernst More Prints

Materials

Engraving, Aquatint, Lithograph

Extremely rare 2-sided lithographic announcement to Galerie Maeght vernissage
By Joan Miró
Located in New York, NY
Joan Miró Extremely rare 2-sided lithographic announcement to Galerie Maeght vernissage, 1953 2 sided Lithographic invitation (header image shows both front and back on one panel) Un...
Category

1950s Surrealist Max Ernst More Prints

Materials

Lithograph

L'enlèvement d'Europe by Hans Erni - Print 43x60 cm
By Hans Erni
Located in Geneva, CH
Hans ERNI is an artist born in Switzerland in 1909 and died in 2015. His works have been sold at public auction 3,987 times, mostly in the Print-Multiple category. The oldest auction...
Category

1980s Surrealist Max Ernst More Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Art Deco French signed Lithograph manner of Icart
Located in FR
Art Deco signed Lithograph from the Louis Icart era of 'Les Elegantes' Signed in pencil by the artist and Numbered 22 Original print produced for the ar...
Category

1920s Art Deco Max Ernst More Prints

Materials

Aquatint, Lithograph

Multicolored flower-piece Richard Hamilton floral scatological still life
By Richard Hamilton
Located in New York, NY
According to Gesine Tosin, Richard Hamilton irritated contemporary critics in the 1970s with a series of works -- romantic images of flowers, still lifes and landscapes, interspersed...
Category

1970s Pop Art Max Ernst More Prints

Materials

Etching, Aquatint

La divine comédie (1950-1980) by Salvador Dali - Print multiple 25x32 cm
By Salvador Dalí­
Located in Geneva, CH
Color engraving on wood from the Dali's portfolio " The Divin Comedy" Lithograph without numbering Framed. Total size with frame 30x38 cm In perfect condition
Category

1960s Surrealist Max Ernst More Prints

Materials

Engraving, Lithograph

Marc Chagall - Original Lithograph
By Marc Chagall
Located in Collonge Bellerive, Geneve, CH
Marc Chagall Original Lithograph 1963 Dimensions: 32 x 24 cm Reference: Chagall Lithographe 1957-1962. VOLUME II. Unsigned edition of over 5,000 Condition : Excellent Marc Chagall (born in 1887) Marc Chagall was born in Belarus in 1887 and developed an early interest in art. After studying painting, in 1907 he left Russia for Paris, where he lived in an artist colony on the city’s outskirts. Fusing his own personal, dreamlike imagery with hints of the fauvism and cubism popular in France at the time, Chagall created his most lasting work—including I and the Village (1911)—some of which would be featured in the Salon des Indépendants exhibitions. After returning to Vitebsk for a visit in 1914, the outbreak of WWI trapped Chagall in Russia. He returned to France in 1923 but was forced to flee the country and Nazi persecution during WWII. Finding asylum in the U.S., Chagall became involved in set and costume design before returning to France in 1948. In his later years, he experimented with new art forms and was commissioned to produce numerous large-scale works. Chagall died in St.-Paul-de-Vence in 1985. The Village Marc Chagall was born in a small Hassidic community on the outskirts of Vitebsk, Belarus, on July 7, 1887. His father was a fishmonger, and his mother ran a small sundries shop in the village. As a child, Chagall attended the Jewish elementary school, where he studied Hebrew and the Bible, before later attending the Russian public school. He began to learn the fundamentals of drawing during this time, but perhaps more importantly, he absorbed the world around him, storing away the imagery and themes that would feature largely in most of his later work. At age 19 Chagall enrolled at a private, all-Jewish art school and began his formal education in painting, studying briefly with portrait artist Yehuda Pen. However, he left the school after several months, moving to St. Petersburg in 1907 to study at the Imperial Society for the Protection of Fine Arts. The following year, he enrolled at the Svanseva School, studying with set designer Léon Bakst, whose work had been featured in Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes. This early experience would prove important to Chagall’s later career as well. Despite this formal instruction, and the widespread popularity of realism in Russia at the time, Chagall was already establishing his own personal style, which featured a more dreamlike unreality and the people, places and imagery that were close to his heart. Some examples from this period are his Window Vitebsk (1908) and My Fianceé with Black Gloves (1909), which pictured Bella Rosenfeld, to whom he had recently become engaged. The Beehive Despite his romance with Bella, in 1911 an allowance from Russian parliament member and art patron Maxim Binaver enabled Chagall to move to Paris, France. After settling briefly in the Montparnasse neighborhood, Chagall moved further afield to an artist colony known as La Ruche (“The Beehive”), where he began to work side by side with abstract painters such as Amedeo Modigliani and Fernand Léger as well as the avant-garde poet Guillaume Apollinaire. At their urging, and under the influence of the wildly popular fauvism and cubism, Chagall lightened his palette and pushed his style ever further from reality. I and the Village (1911) and Homage to Apollinaire (1912) are among his early Parisian works, widely considered to be his most successful and representative period. Though his work stood stylistically apart from his cubist contemporaries, from 1912 to 1914 Chagall exhibited several paintings at the annual Salon des Indépendants exhibition, where works by the likes of Juan Gris, Marcel Duchamp and Robert Delaunay were causing a stir in the Paris art world. Chagall’s popularity began to spread beyond La Ruche, and in May 1914 he traveled to Berlin to help organize his first solo exhibition, at Der Sturm Gallery. Chagall remained in the city until the highly acclaimed show opened that June. He then returned to Vitebsk, unaware of the fateful events to come. War, Peace and Revolution In August 1914 the outbreak of World War I precluded Chagall’s plans to return to Paris. The conflict did little to stem the flow of his creative output, however, instead merely giving him direct access to the childhood scenes so essential to his work, as seen in paintings such as Jew in Green (1914) and Over Vitebsk (1914). His paintings from this period also occasionally featured images of the war’s impact on the region, as with Wounded Soldier (1914) and Marching (1915). But despite the hardships of life during wartime, this would also prove to be a joyful period for Chagall. In July 1915 he married Bella, and she gave birth to a daughter, Ida, the following year. Their appearance in works such as Birthday (1915), Bella and Ida by the Window (1917) and several of his “Lovers” paintings give a glimpse of the island of domestic bliss that was Chagall’s amidst the chaos. To avoid military service and stay with his new family, Chagall took a position as a clerk in the Ministry of War Economy in St. Petersburg. While there he began work on his autobiography and also immersed himself in the local art scene, befriending novelist Boris Pasternak, among others. He also exhibited his work in the city and soon gained considerable recognition. That notoriety would prove important in the aftermath of the 1917 Russian Revolution when he was appointed as the Commissar of Fine Arts in Vitebsk. In his new post, Chagall undertook various projects in the region, including the 1919 founding of the Academy of the Arts. Despite these endeavors, differences among his colleagues eventually disillusioned Chagall. In 1920 he relinquished his position and moved his family to Moscow, the post-revolution capital of Russia. In Moscow, Chagall was soon commissioned to create sets and costumes for various productions at the Moscow State Yiddish...
Category

1960s Surrealist Max Ernst More Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Surreal Artwork "The Worshiper of a Beautiful Watering Can", 1965
Located in Washington, DC
Wonderful original surreal artwork by German artist Piet Morell (b.1939). Titled in German "The Worshiper of a Beautiful Watering Can". Signed bottom right. Work is B&W pencil on ...
Category

1960s Surrealist Max Ernst More Prints

Materials

Paper, Pencil

Trichromatic Flower-piece, Richard Hamilton multi color flower still life
By Richard Hamilton
Located in New York, NY
According to Gesine Tosin, Richard Hamilton irritated contemporary critics in the 1970s with a series of works -- romantic images of flowers, still lifes and landscapes, interspersed with scatological motifs. "Once exhibited, the critics regarded the paintings as evidence either of a kinky sexual aberration or an early onset of senility." (Hamilton 1982, p.79. ) Trichromatic flower-piece is one of these works, which questioned the categories of high and low art through its appropriated imagery. In the words of Richard Hamilton: “The Shit and Flowers series was was inspired in a sense by Barcelona, walking on the Ramblas where thousands of postcards are displayed. (…) I bought three pictures of flowers. I took them back to Cadaqués and began to play about with them, at first by putting a little paint on the surface.” According to Andrew Kim Tyler: “Working at Atelier Crommelynck, Paris in 1973-4, Hamilton used a traditional still life subject, a bouquet of flowers, to pursue his interest in the combination of photographic images with planes of color and hand-drawn aspects, but subverting the image with addition of a large turd. Perversely he set out to produce by manual means an etching with the characteristics of a commercially made reproduction resulting in Trichromatic flower-piece.” In addition to the edition of Trichromatic Flower-piece, Hamilton printed...
Category

1970s Expressionist Max Ernst More Prints

Materials

Engraving, Drypoint, Etching, Aquatint

Previously Available Items
Untitled - Etching by Max Ernst - 1970
By Max Ernst
Located in Roma, IT
Untitled is an original contemporary artwork realized by Max Ernst in 1970 Etching, Aquatint and Carborundum. Hand signed on the lower right margin. Numbered on the lower left. Ed...
Category

1970s Surrealist Max Ernst More Prints

Materials

Etching

Logique Sans Peine (Lewis Carroll's Wunderhorn, Frontispiz) (S./L.135 I)
By Max Ernst
Located in Cotignac, FR
Colour lithograph, on Japon nacré paper, Logique Sans Peine (After Wunderhorn, Frontispiz of 1966) the illustration for the frontispiece of Lewis Carroll's 'Wunderhorn' signed in pen...
Category

1970s Surrealist Max Ernst More Prints

Materials

Ink, Handmade Paper

Danseuses
By Max Ernst
Located in New York, NY
A very good, dark impression of this lithograph. Signed and numbered 172/200 in pencil by Ernst. Printed by Desjobert, Paris. Published by La Guilde de la Gravure, Paris and Geneva, ...
Category

1950s Surrealist Max Ernst More Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Danseuses
H 19.5 in W 12.75 in
Ohne Titel
By Max Ernst
Located in New York, NY
A very scarce color aquatint and etching by the prolific Dada and Surrealist master, Max Ernst. Signed and numbered 40/51 in pencil by Ernst.
Category

1960s Surrealist Max Ernst More Prints

Materials

Etching, Aquatint, Lithograph

Plate 32, from: Lewis Carroll's Wunderhorn
By Max Ernst
Located in London, GB
MAX ERNST 1891-1976 Cologne 1891-1976 Paris (German) Title: Plate 32, from: Lewis Carroll's Wunderhorn, 1970 Technique: Original Hand Signed and Numbered Lithograph in Colours on ...
Category

1970s Surrealist Max Ernst More Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Danseuses - Lithograph by Max Ernst - 1950
By Max Ernst
Located in Roma, IT
Danseuses is an original hand-signed and numbered etching litograph realized by the Surrealist artist Max Ernst in 1950. This is the edition XV of LX, aside from the edition of 200 ...
Category

1950s Surrealist Max Ernst More Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Max Ernst more prints for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Max Ernst more prints available for sale on 1stDibs. You can also browse by medium to find art by Max Ernst in aquatint, etching, lithograph and more. Much of the original work by this artist or collective was created during the 20th century and is mostly associated with the Surrealist style. Not every interior allows for large Max Ernst more prints, so small editions measuring 12 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of Anatole Krasnyansky, Mayo (Antoine Malliarakis), and Marc Chagall. Max Ernst more prints prices can differ depending upon medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $3,563 and tops out at $4,846, while the average work can sell for $4,271.
Questions About Max Ernst More Prints
  • 1stDibs ExpertApril 26, 2024
    Max Ernst lived in several places during his life. He was born in Brühl, Germany, in 1881 and later moved to Bonn to attend the university located there. Then he settled in Cologne, not far from his birthplace. In 1922, Ernst moved to France, where he soon became affiliated with Surrealism, the avant-garde art movement taking shape in Paris. Alongside Man Ray, Joan Miró and others, Ernst was among the first visual artists to experiment with imagery and techniques associated with Surrealism. When Germany occupied France during World War II, Ernst escaped to America with the help of patron and collector Peggy Guggenheim, whom he married in 1941. While living in New York, Ernst's work and techniques proved instrumental in inspiring the early development of Abstract Expressionism. He later moved to Sedona, Arizona, where he lived with his fourth wife, Dorothea Tanning, a fellow Surrealist and prolific visual artist and poet. While Ernst and Tanning are largely responsible for Sedona's reputation as an artist colony, they relocated to France in the 1950s and remained there until Ernst's death in Paris in 1976. On 1stDibs, shop a collection of Max Ernst art.
  • 1stDibs ExpertMarch 13, 2024
    You can see Max Ernst paintings in many places around the world. The Max Ernst Museum Brühl des LVR in Brühl, Germany, is home to one of the largest exhibitions of his work. Other museums that have Max Ernst paintings in their permanent collections include the Museum of Modern Art in New York, New York; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in San Francisco, California; the Art Institute of Chicago in Chicago, Illinois and the Detroit Institute of Arts in Detroit, Michigan. Explore a range of Max Ernst art on 1stDibs.

Recently Viewed

View All