walnut, alder wood brass, mirrored glass, lithographs on paper, two cloth-covered platforms and mattress, painted and lacquered wood, silk
88¹⁄₄ x 102 x 103 in. (224.1 x 259.1 x 261.6 cm) (bed)
72⁵⁄₈ x 19⁵⁄₈ x 2¹⁄₈ in. (184.5 x 49.8 x 5.4 cm) (each panel of the screen)
each lithograph inscribed m e
from an edition of 49

Private Collection, France
Christie's, London, 7 February 2001, lot 221
Private Collection
Thence by descent to the present owner

The New York Times Magazine, 11 January 1976, pp. 67-70, illustrated (no. 1 from this edition, formerly owned by Nelson Rockefeller).
Newsweek, May 26, 1975, (The Rockefeller bed illustrated p. 34).
E. Quinn, Max Ernst, 1977, no. 526, (illustrated p. 407 the 1973 painting, Several Animals, One Illiterate, part of which was used for the lithograph suspended from footboard)
Exh. Cat., Calgary, Glenbow Museum, Max Ernst, From the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Jimmy Ernst, 1980, no. 12, p. 23, illustrated (the 1948 painting, The Blind Swimmer, on which the lithograph attached to headboard is based).

This work will be included in the forthcoming volume of the Max Ernst catalogue raisonné, currently being prepared by Werner Spies in collaboration with Sigrid Metken and Jürgen Pech.

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Lot Essay

In 1974, Modarco S.A. – Modern Art Associates of Geneva – in Switzerland collaborated with Max Ernst on this edition with 49 numbered copies. The bed was manufactured in Italy and the lithographs, on the reverse of the two hanging mirrors, were printed by Pierre Chave in Vence, France: the one atttached to the headboard after the painting The Blind Swimmer from 1948, and the one suspended from the footboard after the painting Quelques animaux dont un illettré from 1973.