The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 18, 2025

Oil painting of thin rocky forms scattered on a smoky grey background. They cast shadows diagonally from left to right. Between some of them fine, pale threads are suspended, also pulled diagonally to the right. In the upper left corner diagonals of rock-like ovals emerge from cloudy white strokes.

Title Unknown

1928

Yves Tanguy

(French, 1900–1955)

France, 20th century

oil on canvas

Framed: 105.4 x 93.3 x 2.3 cm (41 1/2 x 36 3/4 x 7/8 in.); Unframed: 80 x 65.4 cm (31 1/2 x 25 3/4 in.)

John L. Severance Fund 2009.78

Location: 225 German Expressionism & Surrealism

Did You Know?

This painting is an example of a Surrealist "dreamscape," a landscape with dreamlike or nightmarish qualities.

Description

One of the most influential members of the Surrealist movement, Yves Tanguy painted this composition only four years after the movement was founded and two years after he developed his mature style. The composition depicts a series of mysterious forms floating in a dark, dreamlike landscape. Although the objects could indicate rocks, plants, internal organs, or menacing creatures, Tanguy deliberately ensures that the forms remain mysterious. The setting may suggest the ocean floor or a lunar landscape; it, like the objects that seem to animate the scene, is left up to the viewer to interpret according to their own imagination.

Henri Seyrig; private collection
Robinson, William H. "Dreamscape." Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 49, no. 10 (December 2009): 3-5. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 3-5 archive.org
Mann, Griffith C. "Acquisitions 2009." Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 50, no. 2 (March/April 2010): 12-27. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 15 archive.org
{{cite web|title=Title Unknown|url=false|author=Yves Tanguy|year=1928|access-date=18 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2009.78