Max Ernst (1891-1976) (after) - "Fleurs de Neige, 1929" - (70x90cm)

- Max Ernst (after), offset lithograph on heavyweight smooth satin paper (approx. 300 gsm).

- Size: 70 x 90 cm.

- Stamp on the verso.

- Discontinued item. Closed edition, available only on the secondary market (auctions, resellers, galleries, etc.).

- Condition: very good. Never framed or displayed.

- More lots currently at auction: https://www.catawiki.com/es/u/7684787-yuke

- Max Ernst’s Fleurs de neige (1929) belongs to one of the most inventive phases of his Surrealist production, when botanical forms, fragments of landscape and abstract structures merge into a mysterious imagined world. The composition is organised through broad geometric zones of deep black, black-green and intense blue, across which strange crystalline flowers seem to erupt and float. Ernst used experimental procedures associated with grattage and frottage, allowing underlying colour and texture to emerge through the darker surface so that the “snow flowers” appear almost excavated from the painting itself. The result is simultaneously decorative and unsettling: delicate floral shapes coexist with sharp diagonals, fragments of colour and a dark, cosmic atmosphere.

Created while Ernst was living in Paris and playing a central role in the development of Surrealism, Fleurs de neige is an oil on canvas measuring 130 × 130 cm and is today held by the Fondation Beyeler in Riehen/Basel. The museum describes the work as a landscape-like construction in which Ernst used grattage, frottage and comb-like tools to create extraordinary vegetal forms against dark hills and a nocturnal blue sky. Small emblematic details, including bird-like motifs associated with Ernst’s alter ego Loplop, reinforce the sense of a private symbolic universe in which nature, dream and metamorphosis become inseparable.

Its strong contrast between black fields and vivid fragments of turquoise, red, yellow, white and green gives the work exceptional decorative impact, making it particularly effective in contemporary, eclectic or sophisticated interiors. At the same time, its historical importance within Surrealism gives it an intellectual depth that goes well beyond pure decoration, making a reproduction of Fleurs de neige an unusual gift for lovers of modern art, avant-garde design and imaginative visual culture. Its visual language sits naturally alongside the worlds of Miró, Dalí, Magritte and Kandinsky, while its graphic energy also resonates with contemporary design references ranging from Hermès and Gucci to Lego, Star Wars and Pokémon. The work ultimately remains one of Ernst’s most fascinating demonstrations of how chance, technique and imagination can transform a painted surface into an entirely new world.