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an open book with a black and white drawing of a person on a horsean old book sitting on top of a table next to a white wallan open book with a picture of a man in a suit and tie on it
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77 - [Max ERNST]. The Copley Galleries.
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Estimate €4,000 - €5,000
Sale commission
Description
[Max ERNST]. The Copley Galleries. Max Ernst: 30 Years of his Work. A Survey. Beverly Hills, William N. Copley, 1949. Large 8vo, publisher’s blue Bradel-style half-cloth, illustrated covers, modern blue half-shagreen slipcase. First edition. Limited edition of 513 copies: this is one of the XIII non-commercial copies, including an original signed etching (no. HC III). Famous catalogue including the first edition of *Paramyths*, a series of eight poems illustrated with eight collages. “This illustrated work, for which the painter composed both the poems and the collages, undoubtedly serves as the single best example of Ernst’s combined talent as a verbal and graphic artist” (Renée Riese Hubert). Autograph dedication signed on the title page: To my dear friend Joë Bousquet Max Ernst Beverly Hills. 10 January 1949 The friendship that bound Max Ernst to Joë Bousquet from the moment they first met, thanks to the introduction by Gala Éluard in the late 1920s, was unwavering. Max Ernst soon became a regular visitor to 53 Rue de Verdun in Carcassonne, where the war-wounded artist lived secluded in a dimly lit room lined with paintings and drawings. Ernst’s works occupied a place of honour there, particularly since Joë Bousquet had come to the aid of the artist, who was being hunted down by the French and then the German authorities. Joë Bousquet paid a most beautiful tribute to Max Ernst’s work in 1950 in the preface to the catalogue of the exhibition at the Galerie Drouin: “A gentle earthquake shakes this world of artifice where, of all conventions, the most arbitrary posits that the pair of eyes has no other function than to see. Max Ernst speaks to people in their native tongue: he teaches them its fundamentals anew” (see next issue). The copy is complete with the remarkable original signed etching. The cardboard binding is very slightly faded.
See original version (French)
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About the sale Henri Michaux, the Sven Pitsey collection
Auction location
Auction time 10/29/2026 at 2:00 PM
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
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