Projet pour un monument à Leonardo da Vinci, 1957
Oil on canvas, signed and dated lower right, titled, countersigned and dated on the reverse
51 1/8 x 38 1/4 in.
While the Louvre is celebrating the 500th anniversary of the death of the awe-inspiring Leonardo da Vinci, through an unprecedented retrospective exhibit, it would seem to be the right moment to examine his influence on the history of the arts in general. Verily, his research into esthetics and the visual arts represents a legacy that has nourished a great number of artists throughout the ages. Max Ernst is one of those famed heirs, and we are pleased and honored to present his Projet pour un monument à Leonardo da Vinci as part of our Modern and Contemporary Art sale, which will take place in December 16, 2019.
This hypnotic, 1957 masterpiece reveals the tremendous admiration that this key figure of surrealism held for the Florentine genius. Projet pour un monument à Leonardo da Vinci represents particularly well the way in which Ernst’s work is steeped in da Vinci’s theories and revolutionises modern art.
With perfect timing, this canvas of major importance is on the market for the first time in 30 years. Being sold by a private collector in Paris, its provenance is incontrovertible.
Sarane Alexandrian, in his book, Max Ernst, published in 1986 asserts that, « If we wanted to define Max Ernst by a single phrase, it would suffice to say that as a painter, he was the greatest visionary of the twentieth century. » Certainly, as a prolific painter and sculptor, Max Ernst has left a, indelible mark in the era of Modern Art. As an all-round trailblazer, he was one of the first artists to be interested in outsider art. While a student in Philosophy at the University of Bonn, he was attentive to the drawings and paintings produced by patients in a psychiatric hospital. Surrounded by artists, poets and philosophers, by the age of 20, he decided to dedicate his life sole
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