The Massacre of the Innocents

1920

Max Ernst
American and French, born Germany, 1891-1976

Status: On View, Gallery 397
Department: Prints and Drawings

Artist: Max Ernst
Title: The Massacre of the Innocents
Place: United States (Artist's nationality:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1920
Medium: Black-and-white photograph with hand-coloring in watercolor, gouache, and black ink, laid down on tan wove wood-pulp paper
Inscriptions: Signed lower right: "Max Ernst"; inscribed lower left: "Le Massacre des Innocents"
Dimensions: Primary support: 21.5 × 28.9 cm (8 1/2 × 11 7/16 in.); Secondary support, sight: 29.5 × 38 cm (11 5/8 × 15 in.)
Credit Line: Lindy and Edwin Bergman Collection
Reference Number: 2018.316
Copyright: © 2018 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

Franz Roh and Jan Tschichold (editors), Foto-Age Foto-Auge, 76 Fotos der Zeit (Stuttgart, 1929), p. 33.
“Dada à Paris,” Cahiers d’Art 1-4 (1934), p. 111 (ill.).
Galerie beaux-arts, Dictionaire abrégé du Suréalisme (Paris, 1938), p. 36 (ill.).
Herta Wescher, “Collage,” Art d’Aujourd’hui (May-June 1954), p. 18, fig. 2.
John Anthony Thwaites, “Dada Hits West Germany,” Arts Magazine 33:5 (Feb. 1959), pp. 31 (ill.) and 32.
Harriet Janis and Rudi Blesh, Collage: Personalites, Concepts, Techniques (Philadelphia, 1962), p. 104, fig. 118.
Simón Marchán, “Max Ernst o la pintura de la ambigüedad,” Goya 81 (Nov.-Dec. 1967), no 155 (ill.).
John Russell, Max Ernst: Life and Work (New York, 1967), pl. 11, pp. 61 and 114.
Gina Pischel, A World History of Art (New York, 1968), p. 667 (ill.).
William S. Rubin, Dada and Surrealist Art (New York, 1968), fig. 89 and p. 96.
Herta Wescher, Collage, translated by Robert E. Wolf (New York, 1968), pp. 126 and 164, as The Slaughter of the Innocents.
Max Ernst, Ecritures (Paris, 1970), pp. 261 (ill.) and 263.
Uwe M. Schneede, “Max Ernst’s Enlarged Surrealism,” Homage to Max Ernst, Special Issue of the XXe Siècle Review (Paris, 1971), p. 23 (ill.).
Architectural Digest (1973), p. 21 (photo of Bergman home).
Uwe M. Schneede, Max Ernst, translated by R.W. Last (New York, 1973), fig. 76 and p. 40.
Ernst Collages 1991 (1974), pl. 36, fig. 162, pp. 26, 75-77, 117, 229, 240, 244-45.
Ernst Katalog, vol. 2 (1975), p. 199, no. 391 (ill.).
Edward Quinn, Max Ernst (New York, 1977), fig. 78.
Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, 10x Max Ernst: Eine Didaktische Ausstellung zum Verständnis Seiner Kunst, exh. cat. (Düsseldorf, 1978-79), p. 22 (ill.).
Robert Short, Dada and Surrealism (London, 1980), fig. 48.
Eugene Sochor, “Aviation and Art Have Evolved Together in This Century,” International Civil Aviation Organization Bulletin 7-8 (July-Aug. 1982), p. 82 (ill.).
Museum of Modern Art, De Chirico (New York, 1982), pp. 114 (ill.), 119.
Musée national d’art moderne, André Breton: La Beauté Convulsive, exh. cat. (Paris, 1991), pp. 143 (ill.), 486.
Karl Riha and Jörgen Schäfer (editors), Fatagaga-Dada: Max Ernst, Hans Arp, Johannes Theodor Baagerd und der Kölner Dadaismus (Giessen, 1995), p. 52, fig. 11.
Dawn Ades, with Margherita Andreotti and Adam Jolles, Surrealist Art: The Lindy and Edwin Bergman Collection at the Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1997), pp. 122–23, cat. 62 (color ill.).
Matthew S. Witkovsky et al., “The Art Institute of Chicago Field Guide to Photography and Media,” eds. Antawan I. Byrd, Elizabeth Siegel, and Carl Fuldner, pl. 232, p. 247 (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 2023).

Paris, Au Sans Pareil, “Exposition Dada, Max Ernst,” May 3-June 3, 1921, cat. 31.
New York, Museum of Modern Art, “Fantastic Art, Dada, Surrealism,” 1936-1937, p. 223, cat. 348, cat. by Alfred H. Barr, Jr.
New York, Sidney Janis Gallery, “International Dada Show,” 1953, cat. 87.
Düsseldorf Kunsthalle, “Dada: Dokumente einer Bewegung,” Sept. 5-Oct. 19, 1958, cat. 285 (ill.); also Frankfurt.
Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum, “Dada,” Dec. 23, 1958-Feb. 2, 1959, cat. 278.
Paris, Musée national d’art moderne, “Max Ernst,” Nov. 13-Dec. 31, 1959, cat. 125.
New York, Museum of Modern Art, “Max Ernst,” Mar. 1-May 7, 1961, p. 28, cat. 192, cat. by William S. Lieberman; also the Art Institute of Chicago, June 16-July 23, 1961.
Arts Council of Great Britiain (organizer), “Max Ernst,” 1961, p. 21, cat. 22 (ill.); shown only at the Tate Gallery, London, Sept. 7-Oct. 15, 1961.
Cologne, Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, “Max Ernst,” Dec. 28, 1962-Mar. 3, 1963, pp. 27, and 51-2, cat. 146, pl. 9; also the Kunsthaus Zurich, Mar. 23-Apr. 28, 1963.
Chicago, Arts Club, “Drawings 1916/1966,” Feb. 28-Apr. 11, 1966. cat. 28.
Chicago, Museum of Contemporary Art, “Fantastic Drawings,” 1967–1968, no cat.
Städtische Kunstgalerie Bochum, “Die Fotomontage: Geschite und Wesen einer Kunstform,” May 25-June 29, 1969, cat. 51.
New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, “Max Ernst: A Retrospective,” 1975, p. 94, cat. 57 (ill.).
Arts Council of Great Britiain (organizer), “Dada and Surrealism Reviewed,” 1978, p. 118, cat. 5.26 (ill.), cat. by Dawn Ades; shown only at the Hayward Gallery, London, Jan. 11-Mar. 27, 1978.
Boston, Institute of Contemporary Art, “Dada: Berlin, Cologne, Hannover,” Nov. 5, 1980-Jan. 4, 1981; also the Fort Worth Art Museum, Mar. 3-Apr. 1981.
Chicago, Museum of Contemporary Art, “Dada and Surrealism in Chicago Collections,” Dec. 1, 1984-Jan. 27, 1985, pp. 27 and 142, pl. 17.
Art Institute of Chicago, “A Tribute to Edwin A. Bergman (1917-1986): Selections from the Lindy and Edwin Bergman Collection,” May 30-Aug. 24, 1986, pamphlet no. 16.
Kunsthalle Tübingen, “Max Ernst: Die Welt der Collage,” Sept. 17-Nov. 27, 1988, cat. 43, pl. 36, fig. 102, pp. 27, 74, 76-77, 117, 192, 204, and 208-09, cat. by Werner Spies; also the Kunstmuseum, Bern, Dec. 7, 1988-Feb. 12, 1989, and the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf, Feb. 19-Apr. 25, 1989.
Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art, “On the Art of Fixing a Shadow: One Hundred and Fifty Years of Photography,” May 7-July 30, 1989, pp. 262 and 471, cat. 198 (ill.), cat. by Sarah Greenough, Joel Snyder, David Travis, and Colin Westerbeck; also the Art Institute of Chicago, Sept. 16-Nov. 26, 1989 and Los Angeles, Dec. 21, 1989-Feb. 25, 1990.
New York, Museum of Modern Art, “Max Ernst: Dada and the Dawn of Surrealism,” Mar. 14-May 2, 1993, pp. 20 and 92, pl. 100, cat. 99, cat. by William A. Camfield; also the Menil Collection, Houston May 28-Aug. 29, 1993 and the Art Institute of Chicago, Sept. 15-Nov. 30, 1993.

Simone Kahn (later Collinet), Paris, by 1921-at least 1963 [Paris 1921; Cologne 1963]; Galerie Furstenberg, Paris; sold to Lindy and Edwin Bergman, Chicago, July 28, 1965; given to the Art Institute of Chicago, 2018.

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