Original ink drawing by Marie-Laure de Noailles, signed “Marie-Laure” within the artwork (appearing twice as a result of folding the paper while the ink was still wet). With an autograph postcard signed to Valentine Hugo, with two inscriptions and some parts of the photograph drawn over. 

A Rorschach-like Surrealist decalcomania by Marie-Laure de Noailles created for painter and photographer Valentine Hugo, the “Queen of Hearts” of the Surrealists.

Beyond her many titles as muse, fashion icon, social figure, celebrated patron of the arts, writer, and poet, the Vicomtesse de Noailles was also an accomplished painter. Marie-Laure created an eclectic body of work exploring the feminine unconscious, much like her contemporary and friend Valentine Hugo. This drawing is clearly inspired by Rorschach but, above all, by surrealist decalcomania — a technique she shared with the great Oscar Dominguez, her lover until the artist’s death in 1957. The style of this ink piece foreshadows her dreamlike paintings with their spread and blurred textures, created in her studio in Hyères (South of France) during the 1960s.

Valentine Hugo took part in the extravagant costume soirées of the Roaring Twenties hosted by de Noailles and her husband Charles, and appeared in the scandalous film L’Âge d’Or by Buñuel and Dalí, also financed by the couple. In 1930, the two women made possible the printing of Breton and Éluard’s surrealist masterpiece L’Immaculée Conception by purchasing both draft and final manuscript. Valentine Hugo drew and painted several portraits of Marie-Laure de Noailles, including the frontispiece for her collection of poems L’An quarante, published by Jeanne Bucher.

The Vicomtesse also sent along with her artwork a signed autograph postcard with an affectionate message:

“For my dear Valentine, in remembrance of much cold, snow, and foolishness, to forget the nasty car and to remember Aragon’s eloquence — which surpasses all politics — and also to greet him.

29 June 1951, with all my affection. Marie-Laure.”

The choice of Place Victor Hugo and its monument for her postcard is far from incidental: Valentine Hugo lived in a large apartment whose windows overlooked the square named after her great-grandfather by marriage, in the 16th arrondissement. The Vicomtesse inscribed on the photograph “Vive Hugo” and then “et Valentine,” followed by an arrow pointing to her balcony, which she enhanced with drawings of flowers. The Vicomtesse spent several nights in her friend’s apartment during the German Occupation: “One evening, as they returned from Prunier, a guard shone his lantern on her friend’s face. ‘Who are you! Your papers! What’s your name?’ And Valentine replied: ‘Like the square.’” (Laurence Benaïm, Marie-Laure de Noailles).

Rare ink-blot composition by the “Vicomtesse of the Bizarre” (Laurence Benaïm), dedicated to one of the leading figures of the Surrealist avant-garde.