The Chess Sculpture That Set Max Ernst's Auction Record

Max Ernst's sculpture Le roi jouant avec la reine (1953) sold for $24.43m at Christie's in New York on November 9, 2022. The bronze, conceived in 1944 and cast in 1953-61, had been traded twice in the past. Edition of six plus one artist's proof.

The German artist, who narrowly escaped the Nazis and Vichy France with the help of his third wife, Peggy Guggenheim, conceived the record-breaking sculpture in the summer of 1944.

Ernst rented a beach house on Long Island with Dorothea Tanning, his new partner and wife to be. They planned to spend the holiday relaxing and swimming but mosquitoes soon drove Ernst back to work. He converted a garage into a small, temporary studio and resumed making sculptures from the objects he found at hand.

When his gallerist Julien Levy joined Ernst and Tanning he was impressed with the painter's new work: “Max has suddenly become the greatest sculptor in the modern world,” Levy recalled saying.

The sculpture inspired a show of artist-designed chess sets presented that winter in Levy's Manhattan gallery, which featured pieces by Ernst, Tanning and 30 other leading artists, informally organized by Marcel Duchamp.

Le roi jouant avec la reine made its debut in the historic show, rendered in plaster. While the show raised the profile of the Surrealists in New York to new heights, the work failed to find a buyer. Ernst presented it to his friend and fellow artist Robert Motherwell.

Patrons Jean and Dominique de Menil organized the sculpture to be cast in bronze, ensuring the fragile work survived. They donated their cast to New York's Museum of Modern Art in 1955.

The sale beat Ernst's previous auction record by $8.11m, a 49% rise. His previous record was set by The Stolen Mirror (1941), which sold for $16.32m at Christie's on November 1, 2011.

A Brief History of Max Ernst at Auction