Les Malheurs des immortels, 1922: Max Ernst and Paul Éluard’s Surreal Collaboration

Misfortunes of the Immortals (Les Malheurs des immortels) is an early illustrated book by German-American-French artist and founder of the Dada movement Max Ernst (2 April 1891 – 1 April 1976). The book, which marks the beginning of his close friendship with French poet Paul Éluard (14 December 1895 – 18 November 1952), pairs Éluard’s poems with 21 of Ernst’s collages, cut-up wood engravings made from images found in books and magazines (one frontispiece and 20 monochrome plates).

 

 

The collaborators shared more than a book – well, two books, both published in 1922: Les Malheurs des immortels was preceded by Répétitions (Repetitions). When Ernst left his wife and son that same year he moved to France, settling into a ménage à trois with Éluard and his Russian wife Gala (26 August 1894 – 10 June 1982) in the Paris suburb of Saint-Brice.

In 1923, Ernst and the Éluards, including their daughter Cécile, moved to a new home in Eaubonne, near Paris, where Ernst painted numerous murals. That same year his works were exhibited at Salon des Indépendants.

 

 

The threesome travelled to Southeast Asia, the trip inspiring Éluard’s 1924 collection of poems, Mourir de ne pas mourir (Dying of Not Dying). The romance ended not long after they returned to France.

Ernst would go on to find fame as an artist and marry the American socialite Marguerite “Peggy” Guggenheim (August 26, 1898 – December 23, 1979) and then American artist Dorothea Tanning (August 25, 1910 – January 31, 2012).

As for the two other parts of the trio, in early August 1929, Éluard and Gala went to see a young Surrealist painter in Spain, the emerging Salvador Dalí (11 May 1904 – 23 January 1989). An affair soon developed between Gala and Dalí. She left Éluard for the younger man, marrying Dali in 1934. And such is the way of things, they all remained tremendously good friends.