The Hat Makes the Man.
Title
The Hat Makes the Man .
Alternative Title
C'est le chapeau qui fait l'homme .
Creator
Ernst, Max (German painter, sculptor, and author, 1891-1976)
Date
1920
Cultural Context
German European Western European
Style/Period
Modern (styles and periods) Surrealist Dada
Subject
Mixed media Collages Cutouts Puns (Visual works) Humorous pictures Symbols Hats
Description
From caption : C'est le chapeau qui fait l'homme / collage ; from the MOMA website (http://www.moma.org) (11-2011) : The Hat Makes the Man / Max Ernst (French , born Germany. 1891-1976) (1920). Gouache , pencil , oil , and ink on cut-and-pasted printed paper on paper , 13 7/8 x 17 3/4 " (35.2 x 45.1 cm). Purchase. “Ernst's appreciation for visual and linguistic puns was likely fostered by Freud’s book Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious. Here, Ernst cut , pasted , and stacked photographs of men’s hats clipped from a sales catalogue to make phallic towers. This visual pun relates to Freud's identification of the hat—the requisite accessory of the bourgeois man—as a common symbol representing repressed desire , adding new meaning to the cliché inscribed on the work , ‘C'est le chapeau qui fait l'homme’ (‘The hat makes the man’).”
Material
Mixed media Gouache (water-base paint) Water-base paint Paint Oil paint (pigmented coating) Pencils (drawing and writing equipment) Ink Paper (fiber product) Paste (adhesive) Adhesive
Measurements
35.6 x 45.7 cm
Technique
Collage (technique) Drawing (image-making) Painting (image-making) Oil painting (technique) Pasting Adhesion Cutting (dividing)
Inscription
Lower right corner: max ernst / bedecktsamiger stapel- / mensch nacktsamiger wasserformer / (edelformer) kleidsame nervatur / auch / ! umpressnerven ! / (c’est le chapeau qui fait l’homme) / (le style c’est le tailleur) [seed-covered stacked-up man seedless waterformer ('edelformer') well fitting nervous system also tightly fitting nerves! (the hat makes the man) (style is the tailor)]
Work Type
Mixed media Collages Drawings Pencil works Ink drawings Pen works Paintings Oil paintings Watercolors Gouaches
Repository
Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) (New York, New York)
Source
Max Ernst. I Maestri Del Colore. Vol. 188. Milano: Fratelli Fabbri, 1966. (pl.I)
Rights
Photo/illustration credit/reproduced in Max Ernst courtesy: Per tutte le riproduzioni, © by Spadem, Paris, 1967; New York, Museum of Modern Art.
Digital Publisher
University of Louisville Department of Fine Arts/Allen R. Hite Art Institute Visual Resources Center
Format
image/jpeg
Digital File Name
VRC 2437-01.jpg
Rating
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