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Antoine de SAINT-EXUPERY

[Dessin original signé] Personnage fantastique à la mine de plomb et crayons de couleur

s.l. s.d. [1942], 13,4x20,9cm, une feuille.

Fantastical character in graphite and coloured pencil
Original drawing in graphite and blue and pink coloured pencils signed by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, on a sheet of watermarked paper ‘Navarre'.
Horizontal fold.
One of Saint-Exupéry's quirky characters in a suit and bow tie, spawn from the baroque and overflowing imagination of the 'Little Prince's' author. The writer-aviator-artist very rarely signed his graphic works.

 

« Je ne sais pas ce qui m'a pris, je dessine toute la journée et de ce fait les heures me paraissent moins brèves. J'ai découvert ce pourquoi j'étais fait : le crayon Conté mine de charbon. »
 [‘I don't know what came over me; I draw all day, and the hours seem less fleeting as a result. I've discovered my true calling: the charcoal Conté pencil.']

From sketches of barrack mates made in Casablanca during his military service to the watercolours of The Little Prince, Saint-Exupéry's life also included an important side-activity: drawing. On letters to his friends, in the margins of his manuscripts, in books he gave away, telegrams, invoices, tablecloths, leaflets - everything he could get his hands on that could serve as a canvas for his imagination - Saint-Exupéry drew, sketched, caricatured, illustrated, invented and doodled living and imaginary people, friends and girlfriends. He would often casually discard these ephemeral works, extensions of his moods and daydreams.

This mysterious, eccentric character is one of Saint-Exupéry's creatures whom Delphine Lacroix calls ‘sacred monsters with undefined roles' (Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. Dessins, aquarelles, pastels et crayons). Surrounded by a halo of blue hair, his large, frightening and almost Cubist-like eyes seem to stem from a single original line. He added figurative elements and then a bow tie - a common feature of Saint-Exupéry's fantastic characters of strange proportions, often wearing bow ties or cravats.
Precisely dating Saint-Exupéry's drawings remains challenging. As The Little Prince began to take shape, he started from his time in New York to systematically preserve his sketches. Before his American exile, most of his earlier drawings were discarded by the author —apart from those made in the margins of letters and manuscripts or given as gifts to friends.
 
Saint-Exupéry's precious signed and colourful graphic work, which fortunately escaped the fate of many of his drawings.

 
 
 

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