Max Ernst. Stratified Rocks, Nature's Gift of Gneiss Lava Iceland Moss... (1920). Gouache and pencil on printed paper on cardstock, 7 1/2 x 9 1/2" (19.1 x 24.1 cm). Purchase. © 2013 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris
The source for this overpainting is an equine anatomical diagram from a teaching-aids supply catalogue (the Bibliotheca Paedagogica, 1914), which the artist turned upside down. Ernst’s inscription reads: "Stratified rocks, nature’s gift of gneiss lava Icelandic moss 2 kinds of lungwort 2 kinds of ruptures of the perinaeum growths of the heart b) the same thing in a well-polished little box somewhat more expensive."