Max Ernst was born on April 2, 1891 in a small Rhineland town called Bruhl, outside Cologne.  His father, a fiercely authoritarian Roman Catholic, was an amateur painter who taught at a school for deaf-mutes. From earliest childhood, Ernst seems to have acquired haunting visual images which became factors in his work throughout his life. He was a nervous impressionable boy, in constant friction with authority.  During an illness, Ernst stared at the wood flooring and ended up discov (showing 500 of 5237 characters).