{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O1037252"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1037252/"}},"images":null,"see_also":null},"record":{"systemNumber":"O1037252","accessionNumber":"CIRC.194-1967","objectType":"Print","titles":[{"title":"Une Semaine de Bonté","type":"series title"}],"summaryDescription":"","physicalDescription":"Recto-verso prints from a series entitled 'Une Semaine de Bonté'. The series is divided into seven parts, one for each day of the week, with each section illustrating one of Ernst's 'seven capital elements'—third volume: Mardi (Tuesday). Element: Le Feu (fire).\n\nRecto: Print of an interior scene. A man is lying on the floor dead, with blood oozing out onto the floor beneath him. A young winged woman kneels over him and stares off into the distance while another woman leans down to comfort her. A man is standing with his back turned to the scene, shielding it from the view of the onlookers filing into the room from a nearby door. In the foreground, several rats are surveying the dead body. Between them is the raised circular disc, seen elsewhere in the series, this time decorated with a butterfly. The painting on the wall behind resembles a close-up view of a botanical drawing. \n\nVerso: Print of a group of men in a grand dining room with high ceilings. Two men are squaring up to one another while their servants are removing their coats and hats. A naked woman huddles at their feet, and a man with dark glasses holds a top hat and a walking stick while surveying the scene. In the upper right-hand corner, a giant bat stands in an arch and licks his left wing. ","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Max Ernst","id":"A36314"},"association":{"text":"artist","id":"AAT25103"},"note":""},{"name":{"text":"Bucher, Jeanne","id":"AUTH334461"},"association":{"text":"publisher","id":"AAT25574"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"paper (fiber product)","id":"AAT14109"},{"text":"ink","id":"AAT15012"}],"techniques":[{"text":"photogravure","id":"AAT53207"},{"text":"printing","id":"AAT53319"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Recto-verso heliogravure","categories":[{"text":"Prints","id":"THES48903"},{"text":"Collages","id":"THES49040"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"PDP","id":"THES48595"},"images":[],"imageResolution":"low","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"LVLD","id":"THES49658"},"free":"","case":"CIRC","shelf":"BOX","box":"7"}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"prints","id":"AAT41273"}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"France","id":"x28849"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1934","earliest":"1934-01-01","latest":"1934-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"10.58","unit":"in","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"8.125","unit":"in","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"Measurements taken from Circ. card index","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"Published originally as a collage novel in 5 volumes using cut up and reassembled Victorian engravings, reproduced photomechanically.  It first appeared in 1934 in a series of five pamphlets of fewer than 1000 copies each.  There are 182 plates in the entire series are subdivided under the following headings:\r\n1. cahier. Le lion de Belfort -- 2. cahier. L'eau -- 3. cahier. La cour du dragon -- 4. cahier. Œdipe -- Dernier cahier. Le rire du coq. L'Ile de Pâques. L'intérieur de la vie. La clé des chants. \r\n \r\nThe National Art LIbrary holds an original 1934 volume.","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Print from a series of plates entitled 'Une Semaine de Bonté, ou Les Sept Elements Capitaux', ('A Week of Kindness, or the Seven Capital Elements'), heliogravure on paper, Max Ernst, France, 1934","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Max Ernst's <i>Une Semaine de Bonté, ou  Les Sept Elements Capitaux</i> is a graphic novel formed by meticulously collaging Victorian prints, particularly wood engravings, discovered in encyclopedia, illustrated novels and 19th century sales catalogues.  The collage was carried out with such precision that upon reprinting, the joins are rendered invisible.  After <i>La Femme 100 têtes</i> (1929), and <i>Rêve d'une petite fille qui voulut entrer au Carmel</i> (1930), <i>Une semaine de bonté</i> was Max Ernst's third collage novel. Originally intended to be published  in seven volumes associating each book with a day of the week, they were compiled into just five limited edition print runs.\nMelding torture, sexuality, fairy tales, mythology, violence and brutality, the complex and poetic prints are partly a response to the horrors of war and the rise of National Socialism in Ernst's native Germany at the time.  The 'novel' has no words so is open to interpretation, however in the last book the days are accompanied by selected quotations from Marcel Schwob, Jean Hans Arp, André Breton, Paul Eluard and others.  The seven symbolic elements – 'La boue' (Mud), 'L'eau' (Water), 'Le feu' (Fire), 'Le sang' (Blood), 'Le noir' (Darkness), 'La vue' (Sight) and 'L'inconnu' (The Unknown) – provide another means of structuring the book, and the surreal motifs delve into the hidden desires and surpressed fears of the bourgeoisie.\r\nHuman heads are frequently replaced with lion's heads and bird's heads and various recurring emblems represent different power struggles.\nIn total, 184 works were created, with 182 in the published work.  They were exhibited just once in their entirety during Ernst's lifetime, in 1936 in Madrid at the Museo Nacional de Arte Moderno.\nIn 2008 and 2009, specific interest in them revived as four large institutions exhibited the series, at the Max Ernst Museum, the Kunsthalle in Hamburg, MAPFRE in Madrid, and the Musée d'Orsay in Paris.\n"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Taken from Departmental Circulation Register 1967"}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[{"text":"horror","id":"x42191"},{"text":"sin","id":"x40217"},{"text":"nightmare","id":"x39378"},{"text":"dream","id":"AAT251611"},{"text":"Surrealism","id":"AAT21512"}],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["CIRC.194-1967"],"accessionNumberNum":"194","accessionNumberPrefix":"CIRC","accessionYear":1967,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"482/800","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-05-12","recordCreationDate":"2009-06-30","availableToBook":false}}