Dorothea Tanning was an American painter, sculptor, and writer, a major figure of Surrealism. Her dreamlike work explores dreams, desire, and the unconscious. She was the wife of the painter Max Ernst.
Dorothea Tanning
Dorothea Tanning
5 min read
Frequently asked questions
Famous Quotes
« Keep one eye on the inside and the other on the outside.»
Key Facts
- Born in 1910 in Galesburg, Illinois, in the United States
- Painted her iconic self-portrait 'Birthday' in 1942, which caught the attention of Max Ernst
- Married the Surrealist painter Max Ernst in 1946
- Turned in the 1960s to fabric sculpture (soft works)
- Died in 2012 in New York at the age of 101
Works & Achievements
A dreamlike self-portrait in which the artist appears bare-chested before a receding row of endless doors. An iconic work that launched her career and won over Max Ernst.
A famous painting showing two little girls in a hotel corridor facing a gigantic, menacing sunflower. An unsettling image of dreams and childhood.
A surrealist scene depicting a mother and child in a desert landscape, blending tenderness with strangeness.
An immersive installation in which soft fabric sculptures seem to burst from the walls of a room. A major work of her sculptural period, now held at the Centre Pompidou.
Sets and costumes designed for a ballet choreographed by George Balanchine, bringing her surrealist world to the stage.
Memoirs and writings in which Tanning recounts her life as an artist and her era, revealing her talent as a writer.
Anecdotes
In 1942, Dorothea Tanning met Max Ernst when he came to her studio to choose a work for an exhibition devoted to women artists. There he discovered her self-portrait “Birthday” and was so captivated that they played chess, became inseparable, and married in 1946.
Her most famous painting, made in 1942, was originally meant to have a different name. It was Max Ernst who suggested the title “Birthday,” because the canvas marked a true artistic rebirth for her.
In the late 1960s, Dorothea Tanning partly gave up painting to create soft sculptures of sewn and stuffed fabric — strange, organic forms that seem alive. In 1970, she even transformed an entire room, “Hotel du Pavot, Room 202,” into an environment inhabited by these fabric creatures.
Dorothea Tanning lived to be 101. After Max Ernst's death in 1976, she returned to the United States and, in the final decades of her life, devoted herself more and more to writing, publishing poems and memoirs — proving that you can begin a new career even at a very old age.
As a little girl in Galesburg, Illinois, she was bored in that quiet town where, as she wryly put it, “nothing ever happened but the wallpaper.” She devoured the books in the library and dreamed of adventures, which would later feed her dreamlike imagination.
Primary Sources
“Nothing ever happened in Galesburg, Illinois, nothing but the wallpaper.” In it she describes the boredom of her small-town childhood and her thirst for the imaginary.
Tanning recounts her meeting with Max Ernst, her life in Sedona, Arizona and later in France, and her path as a painter, sculptor, and writer.
Tanning explains that Max Ernst, on seeing the canvas, suggested the title “Birthday,” and that the name stuck.
Key Places
Quiet little town where Dorothea Tanning is born in 1910 and where her imagination awakens through books.
City where Tanning becomes an artist, meets Max Ernst and exhibits for the first time; she dies there in 2012.
Place where Tanning and Max Ernst build their house in the late 1940s, amid the red desert landscapes.
Country where the couple settles from 1957 onward; Tanning develops a more abstract style there and lives there until the death of Max Ernst.
Typical Objects
Tanning's basic tools for her early Surrealist works, marked by meticulous, dreamlike realism. She mastered them largely as a self-taught artist.
A wooden stand on which the artist places the canvas to paint while standing. A central feature of any painter's studio.
From the 1960s onward, Tanning used fabric, wool, and stuffing to make her “soft sculptures.” Sewing became a genuine sculpting tool.
An object dear to the Surrealists; it was over a game of chess that Tanning and Max Ernst grew close. The game symbolizes the strategy and chance so prized by Surrealism.
In the second half of her life, Tanning wrote poems, novels, and memoirs. Writing became an extension of her art.
Tanning designed costumes and sets for ballets, notably for the choreographer George Balanchine. Her Surrealist imagination thus made its way onto the stage.
School Curriculum
Vocabulary & Tags
Key Vocabulary
Daily Life
Morning
In the morning, in her studio, Dorothea Tanning prepares her colors and observes the light. A demanding and patient artist, she can spend hours on a minute detail of a dreamlike painting.
Afternoon
The afternoon is devoted to creative work: painting, and then later sewing her soft sculptures. She often shares her studio and her ideas with Max Ernst, in a constant artistic exchange.
Evening
In the evening, the couple hosts artist, poet, and Surrealist friends. Conversations, chess games, and readings enliven these gatherings where American and European cultures mingle.
Food
Depending on the places where she lives, her diet varies: simple American cooking in Sedona, then the discovery of French cuisine after she settled in Europe. Shared meals are moments of sociability.
Clothing
Tanning wears outfits that are both practical for the studio and elegant for New York and Parisian life. She has a personal and refined taste, in keeping with her attention to forms and materials.
Housing
She lived in very different places: an apartment in New York, a hand-built house in the desert of Sedona, then homes in France. These spaces often become extensions of her art.
Historical Timeline
Period Vocabulary
Liens externes & ressources
Références
Œuvres
Birthday (Anniversaire)
1942
Maternity
1946-1947
Costumes et décors pour le ballet Night Shadow
1946
Birthday and After / Between Lives (écrits autobiographiques)
1986-2001
