VENDU
Square 8vo (161 x 122 mm) autograph manuscript with original paintings, 10 nn.ll. facing poetry by Michaux, written by Paul Éluard and 9 original paintings (bodycolour), also by Éluard. Orange calf, lettered in gilt on upper cover, flat spine, git edges, with matching slipcase (F. Saulnier).
1 in stock
Superb autograph poetic manuscript illustrated with 9 original gouaches, forming imaginary animals in the form of Rorschach tests, with verses by Michaux taken from Mes Propriétés (Gallimard, 1929 – reprinted in La Nuit Remue in 1935) and Animaux fantastiques (Plume, 1938) calligraphically written out by Éluard himself.
It contains :
« La fièvre fit plus d’animaux que les ovaires n’en firent jamais ».
« La Grande guêpe-paradis. Un crapaud vaut deux guêpes »
« Privé d’eau il meurt, le reste est mystère »
« Certaines parpues peuvent pendant des heures modifier leurs yeux. On ne se fatigue pas de les contempler, “des étangs qui vivaient” dit Astrose. »
« La Bichuterie des Trèmes plates et basses des punaises »
« La Darelette »
« L’Emanglom »
« Je ne peux faire d’un seul coup de baguette des animaux entiers… Le Cartuis avec son odeur de chocolat »
[…]
« Le Barabatte »
The last leaf contains the following thought : « On n’a même pas la mort pour se défendre » (One does not even have death to defend oneself).
This manuscript was made in the psychiatric hospital of Saint-Alban where Éluard took refuge in November 1943. After publishing Liberté in 1942, which was parachuted by British Royal Air Force planes onto occupied territory, Éluard was sought by the French police. He took refuge in the Saint-Alban hospital run by his friend Lucien Bonnafé, a Resistance fighter and communist who was also being watched by the Gestapo.
There Éluard discovered the Rorschach test. He appropriates this psychiatric tool and turned it into an artistic proposition by adding colours and adjoining Michaud’s verses.
The manuscript is inscribed by Éluard to his daughter Cécile, whom he had with Gala, future wife to Salvador Dali. The inscription is at the bottom of the last leaf, written in multicoloured pencil, indicating a new-year’s gift : « Pour les étrennes de Cécile 1944 ». It is signed in ink.
Spine rubbed, small stains to spine and to the slipcase, else a magnificent copy.
Monday to Saturday
10am – 1pm and 2:30pm – 7pm
(6pm Monday and Saturday)
© 2023 All rights reserved.