FRIDAY, JANUARY 23, 2026 
This Week in La Gazette Drouot : Mischievous geniuses sculpted by Max Ernst for the Amboise fountain
T he preparatory plaster casts for the Amboise fountain illustrate the flourishing Touraine decade of the "Leonardo of Surrealism", who concentrated on sculpture.
By Sophie Reyssat
Emblematic of the unusual, hybrid creatures imagined by Max Ernst, three 1967 plaster casts from his studio illustrate his work as an inventive sculptor. These Two Assistants - a second plaster version of which was used to produce a bronze proof is held at the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen in Düsseldorf - and a Small Tortoise on a Round Base (23.5 x 19.5 x 25 cm, same estimate), represent the first versions imagined and produced for a fountain commissioned for the town of Amboise by its mayor, Michel Debré.
Read the full version of Mischievous geniuses sculpted by Max Ernst for the Amboise fountain in La Gazette Drouot
Emblematic of the unusual, hybrid creatures imagined by Max Ernst, three 1967 plaster casts from his studio illustrate his work as an inventive sculptor. These Two Assistants - a second plaster version of which was used to produce a bronze proof is held at the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen in Düsseldorf - and a Small Tortoise on a Round Base (23.5 x 19.5 x 25 cm, same estimate), represent the first versions imagined and produced for a fountain commissioned for the town of Amboise by its mayor, Michel Debré.
Ernst presented these plaster casts to Gilles Chauvelin and his wife Simone Issaud. They have remained to this day in the family of his friend, whose sculptures will also be on display. This stonemason from Indre-et-Loire was also mayor of the village of Huismes, when the German-born artist settled there in 1955 with his partner, the American artist Dorothea Tanning. It was thanks to the grand prize he won at the Venice Biennale in 1954, which brought him international recognition, that Ernst acquired his tufa stone house between the Loire and Vienne rivers, ideal for setting up a studio. He lived in the peaceful rural area of Véron, near Chinon, until 1968.
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