Napoleon in the Wilderness

1939

Interned as an “undesirable foreigner”

When the Second World War broke out Ernst was arrested as a national of an enemy country: six weeks in a remand house at Largentière (Leonora Carrington followed him there), then the Camp des Milles near Aix-en-Provence, where he shared a room with Hans Bellmer, who painted his portrait with his face as a brick wall. At the end of the year he was released with the help of the Interior Minister Albert Sarraut, whom Paul Éluard had enlisted.

1940

The house is sold and Leonora is in Spain

Returning to Saint-Martin, Ernst found the house sold and Leonora, who had suffered a breakdown after his arrest, taken to Spain by a friend. He lived on help from his friend Joë Bousquet, who bought his paintings, and began a second version of Europe after the Rain.

May – July 1940

Arrested again: Saint-Nicolas camp and two escapes

In May 1940 Ernst was sent back to Les Milles on a denunciation that he had signalled to the enemy with lights; as the German army approached, the internees were put on a train south to the Saint-Nicolas camp near Nîmes. Ernst escaped from it twice and in July obtained release thanks to his marriage to the French citizen Marie-Berthe, concealing, with her consent, that they were divorced.

1940–1941

Escape from Europe: Marseille, Madrid, Lisbon

In December 1940 Ernst reached Marseille, where Varian Fry handed him the papers obtained by Alfred Barr; there he met Breton and met Peggy Guggenheim, who bought a dozen of his works and resolved to help him leave. Via Madrid, where customs officers, admiring his paintings, let him through despite problems with his papers, he reached Lisbon and waited several weeks for a seat on a plane.

14 July 1941

Arrival in the US and three days in detention

On 14 July 1941 Ernst flew to the United States and was detained at the airport as a German citizen, but was released three days later, not without Peggy Guggenheim’s help. With her, her daughter and his son Jimmy he travelled around America, returning to New York in December.

late 1942

Dorothea Tanning and “Birthday”

Selecting pictures for an exhibition of women artists at Peggy’s gallery, Ernst noticed Dorothea Tanning’s Birthday. Julien Levy introduced him to the painter, and a few meetings were enough for him to fall in love.