From time to time (1934/35, 1944, and 1960), the painter Max Ernst devoted himself intensively to sculptural works. He used casts of flowerpots, stones, or tools as building blocks for his figural, often ambiguous plaster objects. Some of the figures were later cast in bronze, others immediately, such as Die Frau von Tours (The Woman from Tours), which Ernst had created as a trophy for the Short Film Festival in Tours. With their matt, delicate surfaces, the white plasters are even more attractive than the bronzes. 

Thanks to the mediation of Werner Spies, the Friends were able to acquire the four plaster sculptures from Dallas Ernst, the artist’s daughter-in-law, in 1993.