Born in 1903 in Piatra Neamț (Kingdom of Romania), Victor Brauner actively participated from the 1920s in the Bucharest avant-garde, becoming one of the prominent representatives. His conversion to surrealism took place gradually between his first stay (1925-1926) and his second stay in Paris (1930-1935) when he joined André Breton’s movement in the autumn of 1933. Following an accident in 1938, Brauner lost an eye and became, for the surrealists, the “visionary” painter capable of premonition. This enucleation had been painted in his Self-Portrait in 1931, seven years earlier.

Victor Brauner, who settled permanently in France in 1938, is one of the greatest artists of surrealism. He is also a sui generis artist in the history of art with an original, complex, erudite, full of humour and inventions work, nourished by his Romanian origins, the most secret esotericisms, German Romantics, parietal art, and primitive arts.