{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O1105848"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1105848/"}},"images":null,"see_also":null},"record":{"systemNumber":"O1105848","accessionNumber":"CIRC.188-1967","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 domestic scene featuring a woman weeping on another woman's shoulder. A small dragon sits on the carpet at their feet. There are three paintings on the wall behind. The first is a closeup of a person's right hand holding a small blade between thumb and index finger. The second is of a young woman weeping in an older woman's arms. The third painting is of a gun that has just been shot, with smoke billowing from the barrel. \n\nVerso: Print of an interior domestic scene featuring the same two women in the same room. This time, they are seated on a sofa facing one another and holding each other's hands. The woman on the left has a large scaly creature, resembling a Komodo dragon, attached to the back of her neck with its torso and tail draped over her right shoulder. There are two paintings on the wall behind. The first is of two women in profile with their foreheads touching, and the second is too blurry to make out. ","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":"photogravure","id":"AAT53207"}]],"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.188-1967"],"accessionNumberNum":"188","accessionNumberPrefix":"CIRC","accessionYear":1967,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"482/800","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-05-12","recordCreationDate":"2009-07-01","availableToBook":false}}