Two children are threatened by a nightingale, Max Ernst 
- Posted by Max Ernst
- Museum: Museum of Modern Art (New York)
- Year: 1924
Overview of the painting :
Two children are threatened by a nightingale – Max Ernst. 1924. Oil on a tree with wooden elements
In this picture, Ernst is literally trying to go beyond the picturesque plane. The image consists of a surreal motive directly written on a wooden board, as well as a number of volumetric elements made of wood and plastic. The figurine of the volumetric frame of the picture does not limit its size, but becomes an organic part of the image, which also includes the embossed details of a strange structure that develops into an abstract long wall curved in a semicircle, as well as a gate opening to nowhere and leading to nothing.
Also an expressive detail of the picture is a call button located outside the image itself. A figure stretches to it, going beyond its space (or dimension), only remotely seeming by a person. She is abstract and symbolic, in her arms is a small child. The second child, a girl, is not in horror running away from the kidnapper of the baby, not just running cheerful and playing under a high multilayer sky.
The threatening nightingale claimed in the name is just a tiny figure in the sky. Why and why is this peaceful songbird can threaten children, what this threat itself is and what the author was guided by, calling the picture that way? Guess for yourself, because this is the essence of the surrealistic direction in art.