Max Ernst (1891-1976)

In 1922 "DadaMax" moved from his native Cologne to Paris, where he spent some time living with the poet Paul Eluard and his wife Gala in a mysterious ménage à trois. It was in Eluard's house, in the summer of 1923, that Max Ernst realised a number of unique Surrealist wall-paintings, which were later taken down and transferred to canvas. Au premier mot limpide was originally in the bedroom. The image of an opened wall through which a larger-than-life female hand is reaching into the room in order to catch a strange insect by means of a ball and thread mechanism, was directly above the headboard of the Eluards' marital bed. ___