Despite Gutenberg's genius invention, manuscripts will never be erased by the printed word, and solid moveable types are evenly matched by fragile penned letters. Hasty or diligent writing, spidery scrawls or sign of the times.
Autograph letter signed by Camille Pissarro, one page on a folded bifolium. A few tears along the horizontal and vertical fold lines, not affecting the text; small paper loss to the margin of the blank leaf.
Unpublished letter from Camille Pissarro, written in an especially graceful hand, addressed to his friend the painter Maximilien Luce.
Autograph letter signed by Charles Baudelaire to Narcisse Ancelle, written in black ink on a sheet of blue paper.
Folds from mailing, three minute pinholes not affecting the text.
This letter was transcribed in the Complete Works volume 11 published in 1949 by L. Conard.
A moving letter from Brussels addressed to the celebrated family notary who became in 1844 Charles's legal guardian, charged with managing his annuity and his exponential debts. A complex relationship developed between the poet and his guardian, mingling necessity and mistrust, yet nonetheless bearing witness to genuine mutual respect between the two men.
This correspondence, devoid of the emotional quality of his letters to his mother or the circumlocutions in his exchanges with creditors, constitutes one of the most precious biographical sources on the poet. Indeed, Baudelaire's financial dependence constrained him to great transparency with his guardian, and each of his letters to Ancelle admirably summarizes his wanderings.
Thus, this letter evokes the terrible mire in which the poet found himself in Belgium and his constantly postponed return to Paris. When he writes, Baudelaire is still in Brussels at the Hôtel du Grand Miroir, "28 rue de la Montagne" (but one must not write the hotel's name, otherwise letters do not reach him directly), where he is dying of boredom, illness, and resentment toward a country in which he innocently believed he would find glory. This announcement of imminent departure for Paris, "Two or three days after your reply I will leave," echoes all the similar promises the poet has made for nearly a year to his correspondents. This one will be aborted, like all the others, for as he confesses to Ancelle a few months earlier, Paris fills him with "a dog's fear." It is only in August 1865 that he will make a final and brief stay in France before his fatal stroke.
His return, "I am eagerly awaited in Paris and in Honfleur," was nevertheless motivated by a compelling reason: to negotiate with a publisher, through Manet's intervention, the publication of his collection of reflections on his contemporaries which he had already titled My Heart Laid Bare (Mon cœur mis à nu) and whose manuscript is partly at his mother's house in Honfleur. Another failure—the work would not appear until 1897, thirty years after Baudelaire's death.
But it is undoubtedly the reference to the "two large paintings [he wishes to] send to Honfleur" that gives this letter all its significance. Baudelaire evokes his wish to repatriate paintings from his collection that he left with various lenders or restorers, of which he had already sent a list to Ancelle a few months earlier. Among these, which ones did he want to bring back to his mother? His father's portrait, the Boilly, the Manet, a Constantin Guys? There is no mention in other letters of this art shipment and of the "remainder" to which the paintings were to be joined. This desire to "send to Honfleur" his precious belongings nonetheless testifies to the weakened poet's wish to settle permanently in his mother's "jewel-house" in Honfleur, an island of serenity where Baudelaire dreamed of a peaceful retreat where all would once again be "order and beauty, luxury, calm and voluptuousness." He would indeed return there, paralyzed and mute, but for a final year of agony after his syphilitic crisis. The Hôtel du Grand Miroir would remain his last true dwelling, as noted on Tuesday, April 3, 1866, in the register of admissions at the Saint-Jean Clinic: "Name and first names: Baudelaire Charles. Address: France and 28 rue de la Montagne. Profession: man of letters. Illness: apoplexy."
A fine letter to the man who was both Baudelaire's persecutor and protector. He accompanied the poet until his death, before becoming executor of the family estate.
"Léger comme une antilope / Il dansait, fumant son clope / Une java pleine de syncopes / Elle en eut le coeur cassé"
Autograph letter card signed by the painter Pierre Puvis de Chavannes to the engraver Emile Boilvin.
The painter addresses a resigning member of the Société nationale des beaux-arts, which Puvis de Chavannes had founded and was in charge of the Salon du Champ de Mars, a dissident event from the official Salon des artistes français: "Cher Monsieur Boilvin, c'est avec le plus vif regret que je vous vois vous séparer d'une société où vous ne comptiez que des admirateurs et des amis. Qu'il soit fait selon votre désir, mais encore une fois, votre démission nous cause à tous un réel chagrin. Cordialement, P. Puvis de Chavannes" ["Dear Mr. Boilvin, it is with the deepest regret that I see you parting from a society where you had only admirers and friends. Let it be as you wish, but once again, your resignation causes us all genuine sorrow. Sincerely, P. Puvis de Chavannes"]
Handwritten manuscript signed by the choreographer Maurice Béjart.
10 leaves written in blue pen. Handwritten pagination.
Maurice Béjart's handwritten proofs for his book Béjart-theâtre: A-6-Roc (éditions Plume, 1992), about his play A-6-Roc, first performed in the same year at the Vidy theatre in Lausanne.
After the foundation of “Béjart Ballet Lausanne” and his definitive departure from Belgium in 1987, Béjart continues to stage operas, produce films and publish several books (novel, memories, personal diary...). In addition, he wrote and directed his third play A-6-Roc performed in Lausanne in 1992, which he published with commentaries in a book entitled Béjart-theâtre: A-6-Roc. The play features seven characters in search of a lost paradise, and calls for a deep reflection on the choreographer's memory and childhood. Béjart takes the leading role and gives the lines to Gil Roman, his favourite dancer during the period in Lausanne, who will succeed him as the head of his company in 2007.
A-6-Roc was probably Béjart's favourite play and it will be the only one that he will agree to publish. Largely inspired by Jean Anouilh's theatre, and even more so by that of Eugène Ionesco, the play makes use of his childhood in the South of France. This manuscript, which provides valuable information on the staging and scenery, was published with the original play in 1992. The present, the past and the future come together in this play through three characters – a patriarchal figure played by Béjart himself, another embodying youth played by Gil Roman (“6 must be at least twice the age of Mr A. This generational difference creates their tension and also their bond.”) and a clown, called Roc, played by the actor Phillipe Olza. The influence of the theatre of the absurd is easily detected here, as much in the scenery choices as in the psychology of the characters: “the play's first scene, that can last from 3 to 6 or 7 minutes, is nothing but mechanical movement of the body [...] conjuring up the useless and empty activity of the world of concentration camps.”
The playwright Béjart nevertheless remains faithful to the “spectacle total” idea, for which he was well known as a choreographer. The play is inundated with dance and movement – particularly in the theatre choir (“four characters I should say, since nothing pleases me less than the uniformity of the Greek pseudo-choirs and other aestheticizing corps de ballet”) and Béjart devotes the last four leaves to the music (“it plays right through the play, like dolphins following a boat”) ranging from Nino Rota to the syrupy music of Jackie Gleason. Beyond the theatre, Béjart wanted, with A-6-ROC, to create a complete work of art, including all performance genres, and in this manuscript he demonstrates his talent as a playwright and a producer.
Invaluable manuscript on the last play that Béjart wrote, produced and performed. It features amongst the choreographer's very rare, privately owned documents, his archives being shared between his house in Brussels, the Béjart foundation in Lausanne and the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie.
Provenance: Maurice Béjart's personal archives.
Autograph letter dated and signed by Jean-Louis Barrault, addressed to Thierry Maulnier (20 lines in blue ink on a single leaf).
Folding marks from mailing, with a small tear at the foot of the letter.
Autograph note dated and signed by Paul Claudel, one page addressed to Thierry Maulnier (12 lines in blue ink on a single sheet).
Central folds.
Autograph letter dated and signed by Michel Mohrt, four pages, addressed to Thierry Maulnier. 69 lines written in blue ink, notably discussing his candidacy for the Académie française to succeed Marcel Brion's vacant seat.
Folds from original mailing. A paperclip holds the two sheets of the letter together.
