Ernst was a key artist in the surrealist movement. His method of combining images from unrelated worlds to create a strange and often deeply unsettling new environment is at the heart of his art, whether in the form of painting or collages. Beginning in 1929, Ernst produced three collage-novels, each made up of a series of collages using old nineteenth-century engravings. The engravings Ernst selected were originally from the book, Martyre by Adolphe d’Ennery (1885). In 1934 he created the third novel, Une semaine de bonté ou Les sept éléments capitaux. It was almost entirely funded by his close friend, the artist and collector, Sir Roland Penrose. Ernst gave Penrose this original collage.