The Life and Origins of Max Ernst Max Ernst entered the world on April 2, 1891, in Brühl, Germany. He grew up in a middle-class Catholic family as the third of nine children. His upbringing was shaped by the quiet, disciplined atmosphere of his home, where his father, Philipp, worked as a teacher of the deaf. Philipp was also an amateur painter, and it was through him that the boy first encountered the tools and the practice of making art. By 1909, while he was a student at the University of Bonn, Max Ernst began to paint. This early period of his life was marked by a growing interest in th…