Teenage Lightning (Les Éclairs au-dessous de quatorze ans) from Natural History (Histoire Naturelle)

Teenage Lightning (Les Éclairs au-dessous de quatorze ans) from Natural History (Histoire Naturelle) is a foundational work of Max Ernst, executed circa 1925 and published 1926 as part of a significant portfolio of 34 collotypes. This print exemplifies the revolutionary techniques pioneered by the French Surrealist movement during the interwar period.

The work is rooted in frottage, a method Ernst invented in 1925. Frottage involves placing a sheet of paper over a textured surface-such as wood grain, leaves, or netting-and rubbing it with a drawing tool to create an image based on chance and natural pattern. This semi-automatic technique allowed Ernst to bypass conscious artistic intention, revealing surprising, often anthropomorphic, figures and landscapes hidden within the textures of the material world. The resulting frottage was then translated into a collotype for reproduction, allowing the artist's textural discoveries to be widely distributed as high-quality prints.

The title of this piece, Teenage Lightning (Les Éclairs au-dessous de quatorze ans), suggests a chaotic, nascent energy. The dense, agitated lines and rhythmic patterning reflect the natural, almost elemental force of the image source, transforming simple texture into a representation of kinetic potential or inner turmoil. Ernst’s utilization of automatism and his preoccupation with natural forms were key components of the portfolio Histoire Naturelle, which became a cornerstone document of Surrealist visual methodology. The series sought to catalog a fantastical, subconscious realm, blending biological reality with psychological invention. As an important example of innovative printmaking from this era, this collotype is held in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA).