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MAX ERNST Histoire naturelle.
Portfolio with complete text and 34 collotypes after frottage, 1926. 430x265 mm; 16 7/8x10 1/4 inches, full margins, loose as issued. Edition of 250. Signed and numbered 89 in ink on the justification page. Published by Galerie Jeanne Bucher, Paris. Original pasteboard folder. Very good impressions.
According to the Museum of Modern Art, New York, Ernst (1891-1976) created these images by placing paper atop various materials—wood floorboards, lengths of twine, leaves, wire mesh, crumpled paper, crusts of bread—and rubbing the surface with a pencil or crayon. Inspired by the resulting textures, he added details to transform them into fantastical landscapes, objects, and creatures. Ernst called his process frottage (French for "rubbing") and claimed it as a form of Surrealist automatism, whereby an artist attempts to let the unconscious guide his hand in the creation of an image.
