“Illustration to ‘A Week of Kindness'” is a surrealist collage created by Max Ernst in 1934 in Paris, France. The artwork, which is part of a series titled “A Week of Kindness,” is composed on paper and measures 18 by 13 centimeters. This piece is housed in the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart in Stuttgart, Germany.
The artwork features a meticulous black and white collage that combines realistic elements with surrealist fantasy. In the scene, there are four human figures in a 19th-century style room, two to the right engaged in some activity and two more consciously posed, one standing and one kneeling in the center. The kneeling figure is interacting with small, fantastical creatures that resemble dragons. A framed photograph on the wall depicts a sorrowful man with his face buried in his hands, isolated from the physical space of the room yet eerily connected to the composition. The contrasts in the figures’ placement and the presence of strange mythical beings invoke a sense of curiosity and unease, hallmarks of the surrealist movement.
