Details

Title

Tree of Life

Artist/Maker

Max Ernst (French, born Germany, 1891–1976)

Date

1928

Medium

Oil on canvas

Dimensions

114 x 82 3/4 inches

Credit

Purchase with funds from Alfred Austell Thornton in memory of Leila Austell Thornton and Albert Edward Thornton, Sr., and Sarah Miller Venable and William Hoyt Venable

Accession #

1983.92

On View

On View - Stent Family Wing, Level 2, Gallery 208

In Tree of Life, Max Ernst depicted a dream-like underwater world inhabited by strange hybrid creatures. Like his fellow Surrealists, Ernst challenged traditional artistic values by tapping the irrational, inner world of dreams and the unconscious mind. To do so, he often juxtaposed seemingly unrelated objects. Ernst loved birds and frequently included them in his paintings as symbols of pleasure. Snakes, on the other hand, represented horror. The serpent with a bird’s head in the center of this painting thus evokes the curious connection between pleasure and horror.

Image Copyright

© Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris