Scarecrows (Les Épouvantails) from Natural History (Histoire naturelle) is a seminal work by Max Ernst, created circa 1925 and published as part of a significant portfolio in 1926. This piece exemplifies Ernst’s pioneering use of frottage, a technique he developed in 1925 by rubbing lead or crayon over textured surfaces to transfer patterns onto paper. The resulting image is one from a portfolio of thirty-four collotypes after the original frottage compositions. This innovative approach allowed Ernst to circumvent traditional drawing methods, tapping directly into automatism and subconscious imagery central to the developing Surrealist movement.
Ernst, a leading figure working in the dynamic French cultural milieu of the 1920s, sought to create images that blurred the lines between the known world and the irrational. The specific technique of frottage generated startling, biomorphic forms that appear to be simultaneously organic and mechanical, suggesting primeval landscapes or monstrous vegetation. Scarecrows (Les Épouvantails) merges these textural ambiguities to evoke a presence that is both recognizable, due to the title, and unsettlingly abstract. The resulting print relies entirely on texture and shadow to define its contours, forcing the viewer to confront the limits of visual representation.
The complete portfolio, Histoire naturelle, remains one of the most celebrated manifestations of Surrealist experimentation, demonstrating how mundane textures could be transformed into evocative visions. The use of the collotype medium ensured that the delicate and intricate details of the original rubbings were faithfully preserved for broader dissemination as published prints. This specific example of the work, dating from c. 1925, highlights Ernst’s significant contribution to avant-garde practices following World War I. Today, the work is held in the esteemed collection of the Museum of Modern Art, acknowledging its historical significance as a foundational print of twentieth-century modernism.
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