1929. Oil on canvas, 110
x 150 cm.
Private collection
The Great Masturbator
is a most important work of one period. The main
subject in it is a large, soft, terrorized head, livid and
waxlike, with pink cheeks; the closed eyes are embellished by
very long eyelashes. A tremendous nose is leaning on the ground.
The mouth, replced by a decaying grasshopper crawling with ants,
opens in the middle of a head finished off with ornamentation in
the 1900 style. After a month of strenuous work in his studio he
entrusted his paintings to a carpenter, overseeing their packing
himself with maniacal care, to ship them later to Paris, where
they were shown at the Goemans Gallery from November 20 to
December 5, 1929.
