Max Ernst

Hut in der Hand, Hut auf dem Kopf [Hat in Hand, Hat on Head]

About this artwork

Ernst exhibited some of his early paintings with the Expressionist group. This painting shows the influence of Expressionism in the self-consciously naïve style and use of heightened colour. The disembodied, moustached man raises his bowler hat, only to reveal another underneath (the mark of the true bourgeois gentleman). A bird can be seen falling out of the tree at the bottom of the picture. Birds often appear in Ernst's work and were of significance to him because as a child his pet bird died on the same day his sister was born.

Updated before 2020

see media
  • artist:
  • title:
    Hut in der Hand, Hut auf dem Kopf [Hat in Hand, Hat on Head]
  • date created:
    About 1919
  • materials:
    Oil on board
  • measurements:
    36.80 x 29.20 cm; Framed: 45.20 x 37.50 x 3.50 cm; 3.00 kg
  • object type:
  • credit line:
    Purchased with Art Fund support, 1997
  • accession number:
    GMA 4169
  • gallery:
  • subject:
  • glossary:
  • artwork photographed by:
    Antonia Reeve
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Max Ernst

Max Ernst