Max Ernst
The Life and Origins of Max Ernst Max Ernst entered the world on April 2, 1891, in Brühl, Germany. He grew up in a middle-class Catholic family as the third of nine children. His upbringing was shaped by the quiet, disciplined atmosphere of his home, where his father, Philipp, worked as a teacher of the deaf. Philipp was also an amateur painter, and it was through him that the boy first encountered the tools and the practice of making art. By 1909, while he was a student at the University of Bonn, Max Ernst began to paint. This early period of his life was marked by a growing interest in th…
The Subject Atlas
A chart of Max Ernst's corpus mapped not by date but by subject. Spokes are what they painted; rings are when; and the threads between stars reveal the patrons and places that secretly connect them.
Spokes — Subject
Each arm of the atlas gathers works by what they depict: portraits, sacred scenes, mythologies, and the scientific studies. Click a spoke to swing that cluster to the top.
Rings — Career Period
Distance from the center marks time. The innermost ring is the earliest period; the outermost, the final years. Style matures as you move outward.
Threads — Shared Context
Coloured lines link works bound by the same patron, commission, or theme. Trace a context to watch related clusters light up across subjects.