Investigations

“For a long time, Blanchot defied the efforts of photographers and caricaturists in the literary press. Over the years, illustrations remained minimal and exceedingly rare: in 1962, L’Express depicted a hand holding a book against the backdrop of a page; in 1979, Libération printed a blank square in the middle of the page, captioned only with the name Maurice Blanchot and a quotation from The Infinite Conversation (‘a void of universe: nothing that was visible, nothing that was invisible’).” (C. Bident, Maurice Blanchot)

Join us in a deep dive into the holistic thought of the Marquis de Sade's cousin who embraced all the fields of knowledge. An accomplished scientist and tide expert, the Chevalier de Sade was also a harsh critic of Necker's economic theories. Just like his illustrious relative, he reinvented the world from the bottom of a jail...

Very rare and sought-after first edition of one of the most important autobiographical works in the history of French literature, masterpiece and major work by George Sand.

The Gazette du bon ton was an important step in the history of fashion. Combining aesthetic demands with the physical whole, it brought together – for the first time – the great talents of the artistic, literary, and fashion worlds; and imposed, through this alchemy, a completely new image of women: slender, independent and daring, which was shared by the new generation of designers, including Coco Chanel, Jean Patou, Marcel Rochas, and so on…

Felice Beato (1833-1908) arrived in Japan in 1863, at the invitation of his friend Charles Wirgman (1832-1891), illustrator and journalist for the Illustrated London News, whom he met in China some years previously when, as a military reporter, he covered the Second Opium War. This Chinese period, during which he also put together photograph albums, influenced his work in Japan.

"You are the only Algerian writer to have thought that this news, the importance of which I do not exaggerate, could affect me at a time when all my anguish is directed towards Algeria."

In a dialogue from Lost Illusions, Honoré de Balzac gives "information that will not be out of place in a work whose material existence is due as much to paper as to the press"

Autograph letter signed addressed to his mother by a fading Baudelaire: “L'état de dégoût où je suis me fait trouver toute chose encore plus mauvaise” N. p. [Bruxelles] Sunday morning 14 [August 1864], 13,4 x 20,6 cm, 3 pages on a folded leaveAutograph letter signed in black ink, addressed to his mother and dated “Sunday morning the 14th.” A few underlinings, deletions and corrections by the author.Formerly in the collection of Armand Godoy, n°188.

On 16 April 1917, Picasso visited Pompeii with Jean Cocteau and Léonide Massine to prepare the ballet Parade, the first work described as "sur-realist" by Guillaume Apollinaire, created for the upcoming season of Serge Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes. This initiatory journey inspired, upon his return, a monumental painting: the stage curtain for Parade, a true visual signature of the ballet that marked the beginning of Picasso’s neoclassical period and is now held at the Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou.