Can you see the right hand emerging from the sleeve of the cape, slightly below and to the right of the center of the image? The work looks like a collage depicting a woman wearing a fur cape apparently stuck between wooden boards. A composition similar to this also exists in Max Ernst’s book of prints known as Natural History (Histoire naturelle), which was completed in the same year. What sets this work apart is the attempt at collage-like expression in an oil painting. For the wood grain and fur parts, Ernst has used the grattage technique, by which a canvas prepared with paint is laid over textured materials and then a palette knife is used to rub off some of the paint. The feather-like cape that emerges in this way is somehow reminiscent of a bird. Ernst thought of birds as his "alter ego," and they were one of his favorite subjects for many years.
(MINAMISHIMA Ko)
Can you see the right hand emerging from the sleeve of the cape, slightly below and to the right of the center of the image? The work looks like a collage depicting a woman wearing a fur cape apparently stuck between wooden boards. A composition similar to this also exists in Max Ernst’s book of prints known as Natural History (Histoire naturelle), which was completed in the same year. What sets this work apart is the attempt at collage-like expression in an oil painting. For the wood grain and fur parts, Ernst has used the grattage technique, by which a canvas prepared with paint is laid over textured materials and then a palette knife is used to rub off some of the paint. The feather-like cape that emerges in this way is somehow reminiscent of a bird. Ernst thought of birds as his "alter ego," and they were one of his favorite subjects for many years.
(MINAMISHIMA Ko)