Attirement of the Bride (La Toilette de la mariée), The Robing of the Bride

The Robing of the Bride [La Toilette de la mariée](1940)

Oil on canvas, 129.6 x 96.3 cm. 

The title of this work had occurred to Ernst at least as early as 1936, when he italicized it in a text in his book "Beyond Painting." Ernst had long identified himself with the bird, and had invented an alter ego, Loplop, Superior of the Birds, in 1929. Thus one may perhaps interpret the bird-man at the left as a depiction of the artist; the bride may in some sense represent the young English Surrealist artist Leonora Carrington.

Max Ernst - Attirement of the Bride (La Toilette de la mariée), 1940. Oil on canvas, 129.6 x 96.3 cm. Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice, Italy