Detail of Moonmad by Max Ernst in the Philadelphia Museum of Art, January 2012

Moonmad

Max Ernst, American (born Germany), 1891 - 1976

Geography: Made in New York, Long Island, United States, North and Central America

Date: Modeled in plaster 1944; cast in bronze 1956

Medium: Bronze with gold patina Bronze cast by the Modern Art Foundry, Long Island, New York

Dimensions: Height: 36 1/2 inches (92.7 cm)

Copyright: © Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

Curatorial Department: Modern Art

Object Location: Currently not on view

Accession Number: 2004-45-1

Credit Line: Gift of Sylvia and Joseph Slifka, 2004

Label:
During the summer of 1944, Max Ernst, fellow artist Dorothea Tanning, and renowned art dealer and collector Julien Levy rented a house on the Great River of Long Island. It was during this period that Ernst created the plaster version of Moonmad. Levy later recalled how he helped to place the work in a field of hayweed and shrubs so that Ernst could look at the sculpture under the illumination of a full moon; it was perhaps this experience that gave the work its title.

Text from: www.philamuseum.org/collections/permanent/279336.html?mulR=1804167935|1