Portrait de René Destouches, oncle de Louis-Ferdinand Céline

Rare photographic portrait of René Destouches, uncle of Louis-Ferdinand Céline.
Photographic enlargement in a probably later printing.
Inscription "René Destouches" on the back.
René Destouches remained employed all his life in various menial jobs following a serious fall from the top of the cliff at Sainte-Adresse. Céline devoted passages to him in Mort à crédit under the features of uncle Rodolphe: "Mais le plus cloche de la famille, c'était sûrement l'oncle Rodolphe, il était tout à fait sonné. Il se marrait doucement quand on lui parlait. Il se répondait à lui-même. Ça durait des heures. Il voulait vivre seulement qu'à l'air. Il a jamais voulu tâter d'un seul magasin, ni des bureaux, même comme gardien et même de nuit. Pour croûter, il préférait rester dehors, sur un banc. Il se méfiait des intérieurs. Quand vraiment il avait trop faim, alors, il venait à la maison. Il passait le soir. C'est qu'il avait eu trop d'échecs. La "bagotte", son casuel des gares, c'était un métier d'entraînement. Il l'a fait pendant plus de vingt ans. Il tenait la ficelle des "Urbaines", il a couru comme un lapin après les fiacres et les bagages, aussi longtemps qu'il a pu." ["But the most cracked in the family was surely uncle Rodolphe, he was completely punch-drunk. He would laugh quietly when you spoke to him. He would answer himself. It would go on for hours. He only wanted to live in the open air. He never wanted to try a single shop, or offices, even as a watchman and even at night. To get by, he preferred to stay outside, on a bench. He was wary of interiors. When he was really too hungry, then he would come to the house. He would come by in the evening. It's because he had had too many failures. The 'bagotte', his casual work at the stations, it was a training job. He did it for more than twenty years. He held the string of the 'Urbaines', he ran like a rabbit after the cabs and the luggage, as long as he could."]