Lois Borgenicht, New York (by 1987)

Private Collection, United States (sold: Sotheby's, New York, November 12, 1988😼, lot 412)

Galleria la Medus🔥a, Rome (acquired at the above sale)

Stanley J🍸ohn Allen (acquired from the above and sold: Sotheby's, New York, November 3, 2005, lot 274)

Acquired at the above sale

Paris, Galerie René Drouin, Max Ernst, 1950, no. 52

New York, Hugo Gallery, Max Ernst, 1950, no. 8

Houston, Contemporary Arts Association, Max Ernst, 1952, no. 11

New York, Byron Gallery, Max Ernst, 1970, no. 21, illustrated in the catalogue

Günter Metken "Europa nach dem Regen. Max Ernsts Dekalkomanien und die Tropfsteinhöhlen in Südfrankreich," in Stadel Jahrbuch, vol. 5, 1975, no. 7, p. 293

Werner Spies, Sigrid & Günter Metken, Max Ernst, Werke 1939-1953, Cologne, 1987, no. 2690, illustrated p. 204

Very good condition. Original canvas. There is a slight uneven varnish. Under ultra-violet light, there is a fine line of fluorescence bordering the egdes, probably due to an earlier framing site edge but there appear to be no retouchings. This work is in lovely condition.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Ernst painted Descente dans la vallée during the creative height of his years in the United States. Informed by his trips through the American Southwest, this composition oscillates between countryside landscape and simplified horizontal bands of color. Ernst moves the ever-present orb from these years to the upper corner of the composition, focusing on a deeply imaginative look at the interplay of hills and valleys. Though there are clear delineations of space, Ernst complicates the figuration with passages of randomized decalcomania in the interstices.

The influence of the expansive and geologically complex Southwestern landscape informs Descente dans la vallée. The artist spent ample time in Arizona with his partner Dorothea Tanning, moving to Sedona in 1946. Ernst was thrilled to find that the fantastical landscapes he had imagined in his works of the 1920s and 30s were echoed in actuality in Arizona. Discussing the significant inspiration of these surroundings for  Ernst, John Russell wrote: "Arizona offered isolation, a celestial climate, a way of life that was both economical and free from suburban constraints. It offered the inspiration of supreme, natural beauty...  Few things are more stirring than the fantastic forms and the irrational colouring of the mountains around Sedona.  In the mid-1940s life and landscape in that region had an uncorrupted quality which made of Arizona a Promised Land in which a new life could be begun and an old one discarded... and although Max Ernst had never been a landscape painter, in the ordinary sense, it was deeply moving for him to come upon a landscape which had precisely the visionary quality that he had sought for on canvas" (J. Russell, Max Ernst: Life and Work, New York, 1967, p. 140).