Portrait of André Breton by Max Ernst & Marie-Berthe Aurenche offered at Bonhams

The First Art Newspaper on the Net    Established in 1996 Friday, March 29, 2024


Portrait of André Breton by Max Ernst & Marie-Berthe Aurenche offered at Bonhams
Max Ernst (1891-1976) & Marie-Berthe Aurenche (1906-1960), Portrait d'André Breton. Signed 'Marie Berthe Max Ernst' (lower right). Oil on canvas. 60 x 73cm (23 5/8 x 28 3/4in). Painted in 1930. Estimate: €400,000 - 600,000. Photo: Bonhams.



PARIS.- Portrait d'André Breton by Max Ernst (1891-1976) and his then-wife Marie-Berthe Aurenche (1906-1960), leads Bonhams La Révolution Surréaliste sale on 29 March in Paris. The rare joint work by the pair has an estimate of €400,000 - 600,000. Following the outstanding results for Bonhams’ latest sales dedicated to Surrealism in 2021 and 2022 in London, Bonhams is delighted to present the third iteration of the auction, La Révolution Surréaliste, in the birthplace of the movement: Paris.

Emilie Millon, Bonhams Head of Impressionist & Modern Art in Paris, commented: “La Révolution surréaliste was a publication edited by the Surrealists in Paris between 1924 and 1929. In the early issues, it contained, among other things, dream stories by Breton, Raymond Queneau and Michel Leiris. Following successes with women Surrealist art and timed to coincide with the Surrealist Women exhibition at the Musée de Montmartre, we are excited to present La Révolution Surréaliste in Paris, the birthplace of this storied movement.

“We are also delighted to be offer a rare Portrait d'André Breton by Max Ernst and Marie-Berthe Aurenche. The women of the Surrealist movement long received more recognition for their role as muses than as artists in their own right. Max Ernst in particular developed a number of passionate relationships with talented and creative women – including Leonora Carrington, and Dorothea Tanning – and yet perhaps the most overlooked has been Marie-Berthe Aurenche. The story of this work offers a glimpse into how women have often been written out of the movement, and how they have only recently found their way back in.”

Max Ernst met painter Marie-Berthe Aurenche in late 1927 and they married almost immediately. Photographed by Man Ray in 1928, they mixed with the wider group of Surrealists, including the leading figure of the group, André Breton. Breton and Ernst were already firm friends, but Breton disliked Marie-Berthe – allegedly telling Ernst that she acted like his nanny. The couple’s joint portrait of Breton blends both their styles, yet the authorship of the work was originally misattributed. When the portrait was shown at the 1933 exhibition at the Galerie Pierre Colle, Marie-Berthe was named in the catalogue as the sole artist. Breton himself surprisingly attributed the work only to her in the May 1933 issue of his periodical Le surréalisme au service de la revolution, but by 1960 altered this to credit both her and Ernst.

Just five years later, Marie-Berthe was to be written out of the history of the work altogether – in his 1965 publication Érotique du surrealisme, Robert Benayoun annotated an illustration of Portrait d'André Breton as such: 'according to André Breton this painting was actually painted by Max Ernst himself'. Aurenche was removed from the creation of the work again in the catalogue for its 2004 exhibition in La Coruña, where it is attributed solely to her husband.

Ernst and Aurenche became estranged and divorced in 1936. She went on to become the mistress of the painter Chaïm Soutine in 1940. Marie-Berthe suffered from delusions, but not much else is known about her. After her death in 1960 she was buried in the same grave as Soutine.

Writing in Bonhams Magazine, Mark Hudson, states: “The anomalous calm of the painting’s composition and atmosphere feel, then, very much Aurenche’s creation. Rather than dominating the proceedings with his monstrous ego, Breton sits calmly at a table in the painting’s middle ground, on a tiled terrace before a sun-drenched Mediterranean headland. Surreal beings, including a naked blonde woman and a bird-fish figure, both believed to be by Ernst, confer on a path far behind Breton, while a headless woman sits on a pediment beside one of two twisting columns. Yet these presences aren’t ominous, as we’d expect in a painting entirely by Ernst: the headless figure feels more statue than cadaver.”

Other highlights of the sale include:

• Léon Arthur Tutundjian (1906-1968), Masque jaune, 1930. Estimate: €120,000-180,000. The artist emigrated in 1923 to Paris where he befriended his fellow Armenian painter Ervand Kochar, who introduced him to Miró, Picasso, Mondrian and Jacques Villon. The present work dates from Tutundjian's Surrealist period, when, inspired by the works of René Magritte and Salvador Dalí, the artist developed his own visual metaphors often imbued with subtle Indian and Persian influences. Although never becoming a formal member of the Surrealist group, the artist was closely associated with André Breton and exhibited with the Surrealists throughout the 1940s and 1950s.

• Jane Graverol (1905-1984), Le Trait de Lumière, painted in 1959. Estimate : €35,000-55,000

• Salvador Dalí (1904-1989), Rosa e morte floriscens, executed in 1967. Estimate: €40,000-60,000

• Salvador Dalí (1904-1989), Study for the Marsupial Centurion, executed in 1941. Estimate: €15,000-20,000

• Man Ray (1890-1976), La bonne route, oil on canvas laid on Masonite painted in 1953. From the collection of his celebrated model, Jacqueline Barsotti-Goddard, collection. Estimate: €8,000-12,000










Today's News

February 16, 2023

World Premiere of Oswaldo Vigas Show at Boca Raton Museum of Art

Raquel Welch, actress and '60s sex symbol, is dead at 82

Eskenazi Museum of Art Acquires Marks and DePrez Photography Collection

Nahmad Contemporary brings together artworks by Henri Matisse & Jonas Wood

Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival appoints new Artistic Director

Woody Auction announces sale of Part 2 of the Ron Blessing collection

Parting is such sweet spectacle: A collector sells his Hirst, Koons and Calder

One of the world's cleanest new skyscrapers collides with the future

Leading Lalique Department thrives in colourful collection market

Julian Wasser, the 'photographer laureate' of LA, dies at 89

Portrait of André Breton by Max Ernst & Marie-Berthe Aurenche offered at Bonhams

When relationships fail, this museum keeps the stuff left behind

Galerie Isabella Bortolozzi opens an exhibition of works by Chakaia Booker

Broadway and West End Theater owners agree to join forces

Hugh Hudson, director of 'Chariots of Fire,' dies at 86

"Printing the Revolution: The Rise and Impact of Chicano Graphics, 1965 to Now" opens at the Hood Museum of Art

New Conservation Director announced for Old Royal Naval College

'Cornelia Street' review: A musical with local ambitions

albertz benda opens a group exhibition bringing together seven artists

NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale announces new exhibition: Picturing Fame

A performance artist pushes the boundaries of drag

Exhibition brings together a selection of Martin Creed's Step Paintings from the past 12 years

'Ingrid Wiener, Martin Roth: From far away you see more' opens at Kunsthaus Graz

Florida College cancels concert over gay singer, drawing backlash

How Gaming Is Shaping Culture Today

How to Choose the Best Online Gambling Site For You

"Verhuizers Utrecht" Easy Solutions for Your Moving Needs

The Role of a Criminal Defense Lawyer in Protecting Your Freedom

Have You Tried This Amazing Stretcheal Cream?

Tubidy Review: Download Music and Watch Video Streaming High Quality!

10 STEPS FOR PERFECT ESSAY WRITTEN

How to get a Special Power of Attorney in Dubai?

best online hotel booking site is booking.com

Personalized Video: Complete Guide (Benefits, Tips, Examples)




Museums, Exhibits, Artists, Milestones, Digital Art, Architecture, Photography,
Photographers, Special Photos, Special Reports, Featured Stories, Auctions, Art Fairs,
Anecdotes, Art Quiz, Education, Mythology, 3D Images, Last Week, .

 



Founder:
Ignacio Villarreal
(1941 - 2019)
Editor & Publisher: Jose Villarreal
Art Director: Juan José Sepúlveda Ramírez

Royalville Communications, Inc
produces:

ignaciovillarreal.org juncodelavega.com facundocabral-elfinal.org
Founder's Site. Hommage
to a Mexican poet.
Hommage
       

The First Art Newspaper on the Net. The Best Versions Of Ave Maria Song Junco de la Vega Site Ignacio Villarreal Site
Tell a Friend
Dear User, please complete the form below in order to recommend the Artdaily newsletter to someone you know.
Please complete all fields marked *.
Sending Mail
Sending Successful