Tickets
English
DonateMembershipTickets

Gala Éluard

Max Ernst French, born Germany
1924
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 965
This evocative portrait reveals the deeply intertwined personal and artistic lives of members of the Surrealist circle and depicts the movement’s fascination with dreamlike states. Gala Éluard was muse and lover to three members of the Surrealist movement: her two husbands, poet Paul Éluard and artist Salvador Dalí, and Ernst, who painted this work based on Man Ray’s photograph of Éluard’s eyes. With curious forms rising from her unfurling forehead, Éluard becomes an imagined embodiment of Surrealism’s wide-eyed interest in art’s power to explore the mysterious territories of the unconscious mind.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Gala Éluard
  • Artist: Max Ernst (French (born Germany), Brühl 1891–1976 Paris)
  • Date: 1924
  • Medium: Oil on canvas
  • Dimensions: 32 in. × 25 3/4 in. (81.3 × 65.4 cm)
  • Classification: Paintings
  • Credit Line: The Muriel Kallis Steinberg Newman Collection, Gift of Muriel Kallis Newman, 2006
  • Object Number: 2006.32.15
  • Rights and Reproduction: © 2026 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
  • Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art

More Artwork

More Artwork
Histoire Naturelle, Max Ernst French, born Germany
Histoire Naturelle
Designer Designed by Max Ernst
Publisher Published by Editions Jeanne Bucher
1926
Saint Peter's Seen From the Pincio, Rome, Henri-Joseph Harpignies French, Pen and black ink, brush, gray and blue-gray washes
Saint Peter's Seen From the Pincio, Rome
Henri-Joseph Harpignies
1856
Margaretha van Haexbergen (1614–1676), Gerard ter Borch the Younger Dutch, Oil on canvas
Margaretha van Haexbergen (1614–1676)
Gerard ter Borch the Younger
ca. 1666–67
The Café Terrace, Diego Rivera Mexican, Oil on canvas
The Café Terrace
Diego Rivera
1915
La femme 100 têtes (Paris: Éditions du Carrefour, 1929), Max Ernst French, born Germany, photomechanical reproduction of a collage
La femme 100 têtes (Paris: Éditions du Carrefour, 1929)
Max Ernst
Author Advice to reader written by André Breton
Publisher Published by Editions du Carrefour
1929

Related Content

Timeline of Art History

Entries and chronologies from The Met's art encyclopedia.

Publications

Books, guides, and catalogues published by The Met.

Research Resources

The Met provides unparalleled resources for research and welcomes an international community of students and scholars. The Met's Open Access API is where creators and researchers can connect to the The Met collection. Open Access data and public domain images are available for unrestricted commercial and noncommercial use without permission or fee.

To request images under copyright and other restrictions, please use this Image Request form.

Feedback

We continue to research and examine historical and cultural context for objects in The Met collection. If you have comments or questions about this object record, please contact us using the form below. The Museum looks forward to receiving your comments.

Send feedback

Content Notice

The Metropolitan Museum of Art presents over 5,000 years of art from around the world, and our online collection reflects ongoing work conducted over the course of our more than 150-year history. You may encounter objects or images that may be inappropriate for some viewers or information that may be outdated.