Le start du châtaignier (The Start of the Chestnut Tree)

Among Ernst's most important contributions to Surrealism are the drawings he created using the technique of frottage, as seen in this drawing. By placing a sheet of paper on an irregular surface--such as a wooden board, a leaf, of a piece of fabric--and rubbing it with a pencil, he obtained unexpected patterns that stimulated his imagination. "I was suprised by the sudden intensification of my visionary faculties and by the hallucinating succession of contradictory images," he recalled.