Privately printed first edition, limited to 200 numbered copies.
Illustrated with 6 photographs.
A rare and appealing copy of this work entirely produced by the students of the prestigious École Estienne.
First edition, printed in a small number of copies, of this offprint from the Recueil des notices et mémoires de la Société archéologique de Constantine de l'année 1873.
Not in Tailliart.
Front wrapper detached then reattached, losses to the spine, small chips to the corners.
Scarce work illustrated with 14 plates printed hors texte and numbered I–XII (including plates VI bis and ter). Not in Tailliart.
A volunteer in the Corps of Engineers from 1841 onward, Baptiste-Charles Brunon (1821–1888) spent most of his military career in Algeria; after the 1871 war he returned to oversee the Engineering Corps in Constantine.
First edition describing the 388 items offered in the sale.
A few pencilled hammer prices in the margins, a loss to the upper right corner of the front wrapper and title-page, and small corner losses to the wrappers.
The introduction is by Fröhner, though the expert in charge of the sale was Hoffmann.
Of Baden origin, the numismatist Ludwig Wilhelm Fröhner (1834–1925) settled in Paris in 1859; he became a close friend of Napoleon III and assisted him in the preparation of his Histoire de Jules César (1865–1866), which helped him obtain both French naturalisation (1866) and an important post at the Louvre.
He later devoted himself to the cataloguing of collections, producing works that became major references for Antiquity and early medieval archaeology.
First edition of the catalogue published for the exhibition of works by Max Ernst, held from 15 November to the end of December 1961.
A fine copy.
Illustrated, with a foreword by Alain Bosquet.
Signed autograph inscription by Max Ernst to Madame de Harting.
Very rare first edition of this splendid photographic album, produced in Cairo in 1871, representing the first illustrated catalogue of the earliest museum devoted to Egyptology.
The photographs by Hippolyte Delié and Émile Béchard depict the rooms and antiquities of the Boulaq Museum, founded in Cairo in 1863 by the eminent Egyptologist Auguste Mariette (1821–1881).
The album comprises forty albumen prints (approx. 24.5 × 18 cm), mounted on thick card leaves set on guards, each accompanied by a letterpress commentary leaf (except plates 4 and 11, which each have two). The prints are mounted on the versos of the plates, the rectos bearing the printed captions.
Contemporary half brown shagreen, spine with five raised bands decorated with blind-tooled compartments and gilt floral tools, minor rubbing to spine and joints, headcaps slightly softened, blind-tooled interlaced borders on the boards, gilt title on upper board, endpapers and pastedowns in white moiré silk with a few light spots, all edges gilt.
Repairs to the spine and one joint at head, a few scattered internal spots.
Bronze cast of the Marquis de Sade's skull by the master founder Avangini. One of a unique numbered edition of 99 bearing a reproduction of Sade's signature, this one no.31.
Also included is a certificate of authenticity signed by the Comtesse de Sade, with the family's wax seal.
Provenance: family archives.
First edition of this album of caricatures by Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi which he numbered and initialled (copy no. 36, followed by his initial). Printed "in small numbers” (Bartholdi Museum), with only six located in institutions (Colmar Museum, BnF, Harvard, UPenn, NYPL, Rutgers University).
Publisher’s blue cloth binding, smooth spine gilt-lettered along its length, upper board numerously framed in black, anchors and stars stamped in black at the corners, title and date gilt-stamped; lower board numerously framed in black, black stars at the corners and a central anchor, red edges. Slight rubbing to joints, faint mottling to the lower part of the upper board, a few plate tabs slightly split at foot, not affecting the integrity of the binding.
Illustrated with an engraved title-frontispiece, a half-title featuring the head of the Statue of Liberty, and 30 full-page hand-coloured lithographs.
Exceptionally rare copy of Auguste Bartholdi’s caricature album created on board the steamship bound for the United States for the 1876 Philadelphia World’s Fair, where he exhibited part of the Statue of Liberty.
This curious album contains the only caricature of the Statue by Bartholdi ever published: a vignette on the half-title depicting the top of Lady Liberty’s crowned head with her amused eyes emerging above the Atlantic. Moreover, the profits from the album were donated to the Franco-American subscription fund for the statue's construction.
Partly original edition, with no mention of a deluxe paper issue.
Half black shagreen binding, spine with five raised bands tooled with gilt garlands, gilt date at foot, marbled paper boards, comb-marbled endpapers and pastedowns, gilt edges, contemporary binding.
Pleasant copy.
First edition, one of 20 numbered copies on alfa, the only deluxe issue.
Illustrations.
A few very light, insignificant spots of foxing.
A handsome copy, complete with its illustrated dust jacket.
Autograph letter in blue and red pencil by Pablo Picasso to Max Pellequer, signed and dated by the author on June 7, 1956. The document includes the autograph address of his villa ‘La Californie’. 12 lines on the front of the letter and two lines on the back on a printed notice announcing the forthcoming publication of a book by Thérèse Leroy.
Minor folds and a slight crease in the lower left corner.
We have here a rare written account of Pablo Picasso engaging in self-deprecation. In his villa "Californie", the painter found a printed poster announcing the forthcoming publication of the book "La technique du classement" (The Technique of Classification). On this announcement, he humorously wrote the following words: "Je vais m'y mettre. Un peu sur le tard" (I'll get started on it, with slight delay), well aware that he preferred to devote his time to his art rather than to administrative tasks. Picasso refers here to the topic of his letter, the discovery of a new insurance document requested by its recipient. Max Pellequer, who managed his finances, knew only too well the disorderly nature of his friend, the artist with 50,000 works to his credit.
Picasso's true concerns however seem to reflect in the letter's graphic composition. He changed the colour and size of the characters to highlight what really mattered to him: beauty and friendship.
« Mistral et soleil. Allez bien et bonne poignée de main de votre Picasso » ! ("Mistral and sunshine, and a proper handshake to you from Picasso"!)
First edition of the French translation. No grands papiers (deluxe copies) were printed.
Some loss of plastic film on the spine, two light damp-stains on the upper and lower edges.
Signed and dated by Andy Warhol with an original drawing on three pages: verso of the first cover, endpaper and title page.
Multi-coloured autograph letter from Pablo Picasso to Max Pellequer, signed and dated by the artist on September 23, 1958. The document includes the autograph address of his villa ‘La Californie’. 13 lines in a multi-coloured tip pen (orange, red, blue and green) on a sheet marked ‘VIA WESTERN UNION’.
Minor folds. Tear in the lower left corner.
Colour is not systematically used in Pablo Picasso's letters. It would seem that the artist wanted to make a kind gesture towards his friend and banker Max Pellequer, because the more aesthetically pleasing his letters are, the more valuable they are.
The use of a multicoloured pen in letter writing was a practice shared by several artists, notably Paul Éluard.
Multi-colored autograph letter to Max Pellequer
Elegant multi-colored autograph letter by Pablo Picasso to Max Pellequer, signed and dated 'December 20, 1955'. A leaf in multi-color pencil (blue, green, orange and red).
Traces of transverse folds.
This "graphic" letter in the most literal sense constitutes a superb polychrome and artistic link in an epistolary chain that linked Picasso and his prominent patron for decades.
First edition, only two copies listed in the CCF (Archives nationales, Arras).
Spine split with some losses.
Complete with the two successive reports (1 February 1862; 6 June 1863).
First edition of this issue entirely devoted to Guillaume Apollinaire.
With numerous contributions including those by Guillaume Apollinaire, Tristan Tzara, Pierre Albert-Birot, Paul Dermée, André Salmon, and Roche Grey. Iconography, illustrations, facsimiles; a complete copy including the portrait of Guillaume Apollinaire by Marcoussis.
Two small tears at the head and foot of the spine, a well-preserved copy.
Front cover illustrated with a portrait of Guillaume Apollinaire by Pablo Picasso.
First edition, printed in a small number of copies on laid paper, extracted from the Journal asiatique; a single copy recorded in the CCF (Strasbourg).
Rare copy preserved in its original blue paper wrappers, as issued.
Traces of a label on the left margin of the front cover, a pleasing copy overall.
Inscribed by Giovanni Antonio Arri on the upper cover to archaeologist Désiré Raoul-Rochette (1789–1854), then a member of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres.
First edition of this occasional text, illustrated with 4 plates outside the text.
Spine faintly faded, a rare and attractive copy.
Archbishop of Algiers from 1867, Charles Lavigerie (1825–1892) would become in 1884 Primate of Africa through his exceptional accumulation of titles, including the restored See of Carthage.
He took an early interest in the excavations of the Carthage site.
Composite copy: the first volume corresponds to the second American edition, which is partially original (with the shortened title Incidents of Travel in Yucatan), while the second is the first edition (with the full title); the text of the first volume being expanded compared to the 1841 edition. This title, originally printed in 15,000 copies, was a tremendous success and saw numerous reprints between 1841 and the author’s death in 1852 (cf. Sabin 91 297 and 91 299).
Illustrated with 96 engravings distributed as follows: 54 illustrations (some full-page in-text), including 21 plates out of text (among them a folding map and a folding frontispiece) for the first volume; for the second: 42 out-of-text plates, including 2 double-page spreads.
Contemporary early 20th-century bindings in black half shagreen, spines with five raised bands framed by blind tooling, minor rubbing to spines, slight discoloration to outer margins of boards, marbled paper-covered boards, comb-marbled endpapers and pastedowns, gilt top edges.
This work holds a major place in American travel literature: it marked the public’s first real encounter with the vestiges of Maya civilization. But it is not solely archaeological in focus: as a travel narrative, highly fashionable at the time, it blends anecdotes, character portraits, detailed descriptions of visited sites, extensive commentary on the political context and the civil war then tearing Central America apart, as well as the pioneering archaeological component, which in fact constitutes only about one-third of the work.
Born into a wealthy New York family, John Lloyd Stephens (1805–1852) undertook two expeditions to Central America following his 1836 meeting with the draughtsman Frederick Catherwood (1799–1854). Upon the death of the United States envoy to the Federation of Central America, Stephens leveraged his political connections to obtain a diplomatic mission to the region from President Van Buren. Central America at that time was in complete turmoil: a civil war raged between the federal government and the various states within the Federation. Stephens hoped that his diplomatic passport would afford him some protection during the journey. On 3 October 1839, Stephens and Catherwood sailed from British territory toward Belize, beginning a journey of several months that would take them to Copán, Quiriguá, Toniná, Palenque, and finally Uxmal. The second expedition, undertaken in October 1842 following the phenomenal success of their first publication, took the pair from Uxmal to Tulum, via Sayil, Labná, Kabah, and Chichén Itzá, covering over forty Maya sites. The text of this second edition reflects the added knowledge gained during this follow-up expedition.
Provenance: From the library of explorer and archaeologist Alexis-Antoine-Maurice de Périgny (1877–1935), with his pictorial bookplate mounted on the front endpapers.
De Périgny’s principal expeditions focused specifically on Mexico and Central America (Guatemala, Costa Rica, 1909–1913). He himself published Le Yucatan inconnu (1908) on the region.
Rare first edition, as referenced by Clouzot (see Guide du bibliophile français XIXe siècle, p. 256).
A few insignificant spots of foxing, a small black ink stain at the bottom of pages 354–355. Complete with the errata leaf at the end of the volume.
Caramel half calf binding, spine with five raised bands ruled with gilt dotted lines and decorated with gilt and black tools, gilt fillets at head and foot of spine. Minor rubbing to the spine. Brown morocco title label. Marbled paper-covered boards framed with blind-stamped vertical rolls, endpapers and pastedowns in cat’s-eye paper, all edges gilt. Roman bookseller’s label at the top of a pastedown. Period-style binding signed in blind by Durvand.
Rare and important work (cf. Carteret), notable for being the first to bear Stendhal’s pseudonym on the title page.
First edition, 15 issues in 15 separate installments, abundantly illustrated with black and white photographs. Complete with the special issue "Hommage à Picasso" (No. 3, 1930) and the index for the year 1929, published as a separate 8-page stapled booklet.
Presented in a custom slipcase with a flat spine in blue morocco, title stamped in palladium and spine framed in palladium, decorative blue paper boards, sky-blue suede doublures; a handsome ensemble signed Boichot.
Some spines slightly faded not affecting the text, occasional minor foxing along the margins of certain covers.
Complete series of this legendary and non-conformist magazine founded by Georges Bataille, which gave voice to "fields of art and knowledge unrecognized by official culture or considered controversial: popular literature, jazz, cabaret, advertising, everyday life" (Annie Pirabot), along with so-called primitive art and objects.
Rare first French edition of the travel impressions of Prince Soltykoff, more an adaptation than a strict translation (cf. Vicaire, VII, 575. Schwab, 544. Only two copies listed in the CCF).
Illustrated with a two-tone lithographed frontispiece and 20 tinted lithographic plates by Trayer and Émile Beau after drawings by the author.
Contemporary green half-shagreen binding, flat spine decorated with double gilt fillets and broad blind-stamped fillets, dark green paper-covered boards, minor restorations and rubbing to head and foot of joints, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, period binding.
Some superficial wear and very faint foxing, otherwise a pleasant copy in contemporary binding.
Prince Alexei Soltykoff (1806–1859), a member of one of the most prominent Russian families, was sent on a diplomatic mission to Tehran in 1838 under the reign of Muhammad Shah. He spent nearly a year in Persia. Having no real calling for diplomacy, he abandoned the career soon after his return and settled in Paris to prepare for further travels in India.
A singular and even eccentric figure, Soltykoff had been fascinated with travel since childhood, and this mission provided him with his long-awaited opportunity to explore the Orient. Arriving via the Caucasus, he remained in Tehran until May 1839, which he observed and described extensively, particularly through the everyday lives of its inhabitants. The plates are of particular interest for their depiction of costumes (Saba, Bibliographie Française de l’Iran, p. 187 no. 211).
First edition of the French translation of this remarkable study originally published in Vienna in the *Mines de l'Orient*.
The work, translated and enriched with observations and explanatory notes, followed by a dissertation on the location of the Pallacopas by J. Raimond, is illustrated with six folding plates at the end (rather than four, as stated on the title page).
Contemporary binding in green half sheep, spine slightly faded, gilt-stamped with a sphinx, gilt title, cat's-eye marbled paper-covered boards, comb-marbled endpapers and pastedowns, modern binding.
Some foxing, mainly affecting the opening leaves.
Rich provides "une description très détaillée de toutes les ruines et de tous les tertres [...] qui s'étendent à une grande distance sur les deux rives de l'Euphrate" (Michaud).
His work on Babylon is regarded as the starting point of Mesopotamian archaeology (Chahine, 4032).
Autograph letter dated and signed by André Breton, 21 lines in blue ink on a single sheet, addressed to Georges Isarlo of the journal Combat-Art concerning a text given to him by his friend José Pierre.
True to form, the leading figure and high priest of Surrealism seeks to clarify matters with his correspondent: "Vous comprendrez sûrement le souci que je puis avoir de ne pas, sous un vain prétexte d'anniversaire, laisser dénaturer le sens et gâter le fruit de quarante années de lutte et voudrez bien considérer qu'il a pour tous ses signataires - répondants du surréalisme aujourd'hui - la même importance vitale que pour moi."
First edition, exceedingly rare copy without statement of edition, with the correct imprint dated 20 October 1912.
Restorations to spine and inner margins of the covers, a discreet fold to the lower right corner of the front cover.
Illustrated with 26 artworks by Paul Cézanne, Pablo Picasso, André Derain, Georges Braque, Jean Metzinger, Marie Laurencin, Albert Gleizes, Fernand Léger, Marcel Duchamp, Juan Gris and Francis Picabia.
A fine copy despite restorations, rare without statement of edition, of this Cubist manifesto published on the occasion of the historic exhibition of the "Section d'Or" at the Galerie La Boétie.
***
"It is difficult to imagine today the impact of Gleizes and Metzinger's book. Read, reread, celebrated or rejected, it was very quickly translated into Russian and English. The Russian cultural avant-garde discussed it passionately. From the American critic Arthur Jerome Eddy to the Romanian painter Marcel Janco, they recommended reading it, at the risk of forgetting that it was less the theorists than the good painters who expressed themselves in it. The Flemish poet Paul van Ostaijen considered the book as useful for a writer as for an artist, and, in fact, the abandonment of the concern for resemblance of the cubist painters corresponds to the fragmentation of meaning and the unusual images of Apollinaire or Reverdy. Du cubisme ends with these words: "To the partial freedoms conquered by Courbet, Manet, Cézanne and the Impressionists, Cubism substitutes infinite freedom. We now know that Cubism was not a break with the past but a door wide open to the future." (Serge Fauchereau)
Autograph poem by André Pieyre de Mandiargues signed A.P.M. and dated June 5, 1974 entitled "Le plus libre graveur" and which he dedicated to Joan Miro.
Written in black ballpoint pen on a sheet, the poem, of 44 lines, contains some crossings-out and manuscript additions as well as an addition of a cut and pasted sheet in the lower right corner of the poem.
This text celebrating the painter Joan Miro and his style was published in the review XXe siècle in December 1974:
"Feu d'air ou feu de terre
Feu de feu ou feu d'eau
Le haut feu de Miro
Se fait esprit de sel
Acide ardent fumant
Machoîre du dieu ivre
Qui va mordre le cuivre...
...
Parfois il grave sur le givre
il invente le regard
il noie le soleil
Il l'ébouillante
Parfois il balance l'homme
Il bascule la demoiselle,
...
La grande lingerie des noirs
Des bleus des rouges des roses
Des jaunes et des verts
Claquant au vent de Majorque
Un grand pavois d'allégresse
Imposé au blanc d'une page..."
Beautiful poem by André Pieyre de Mandiargues celebrating the abundant style of vivid colors of the painter and engraver Joan Miro.
Autograph letter signed and dated by Auguste Bartholdi to writer Edmond About. Three pages written in black on a bifolium with his letterhead.
Traces of folds inherent to mailing.
Bartholdi returns from Egypt after having presented his project for a colossal statue on the Suez Canal, whose design will eventually be used for the Statue of Liberty. The sculptor gives his impressions of the trip, and brings back silks and Persian carpets from the bazaar for his friend.
From March to April 1868, Bartholdi stayed in Egypt to submit his monument project to Viceroy Ismaïl-Pacha. The idea of building a statue at the entrance to the Suez Canal had stemmed from the sculptor's visit to the canal company's pavilion at the Paris Universal Exhibition. He then imagined a fifty-metre-tall female colossus, stretching her arm skywards and brandishing a lantern - which he named "Egypt bringing light to Asia", or "Egypt illuminating the Orient". The pasha and chief canal builder Ferdinand de Lesseps were not won over:
"Of my enterprise I cannot give you any interesting information. I really don't know myself whether I've succeeded or not. You'll have to wait and see, I've found a benevolent welcome; but nothing definite, in the Egyptian fashion." The idea finally took root on the other side of the Atlantic, where his statue was enthusiastically welcomed by the Franco-American union and brought him international renown.
In addition to his excursions on the back of a donkey to find a site for his work on the banks of the canal, the sculptor took to strolling the streets of Alexandria and Cairo, drawing numerous sketches: "I intended to return to complete my studies at the bazaar; when, being indisposed, I was obliged to leave suddenly [...] I had the pleasure of seeing your friend Arackel, who was as kind to me as your letter ". Bartholdi also thanks About for his glowing review of his work published on June 1st: "It took your kind little note in the Revue des deux mondes to get my pen into my hands. Thank you for your friendly caress", and talks at length about the silks and carpets he had promised him: " The habaye [abbaya] of blue and gold silk cost 180 instead of 175, and they would only let me have it for 130, the last price. The Caramanie carpets cost 60 last price, and I only saw two or three that were beautiful".
A precious and aesthetic letter by Bartholdi, whose unsuccessful venture in Egypt would lead to the building of America's most iconic monument.
First edition and complete run of the 9 G.L.M. cahiers issued between May 1936 and March 1939.
A few spines slightly faded, as is often the case; otherwise a pleasing copy, complete with its original publisher’s slipcase in full grey boards, with red printed title label pasted to the spine.
With numerous contributions by most of the Surrealist poets, writers, and artists, including: André Breton, René Char, Paul Éluard, Philippe Soupault, René Crevel, Valentine Penrose, Federico García Lorca, Pablo Neruda, Michel Leiris, Max Ernst, Man Ray, and André Masson, as well as several spiritual forebears of Surrealism such as Franz Kafka, Lewis Carroll, and Raymond Roussel...
Rare first edition.
No copy recorded in the CCF.
Some marginal tears and losses to the boards.
In 1838 the “Chinese Museum” opened in Philadelphia on the ground floor of the museum of Charles Willson Peale, based on the objects brought back from China by the Quaker merchant Nathan Dunn (1782–1844), who had returned from a long commercial stay in Canton (1818–1832).
The whole of this collection was also exhibited in London in 1842 and, after Dunn’s death, again in 1851, the latter showing meeting with far less success.
The fate of the objects that composed it remains obscure, but the collection fell victim to its own success and appears to have been both plundered by unscrupulous amateurs and dispersed at auction.
First edition, with three folding plates and numerous hieroglyphs in the text.
A copy preserved in its original wrappers with temporary green paper covers, a title label affixed at the head of the spine.
Occasional foxing.
The German traveller and Orientalist Julius von Klaproth (1783–1835), one of the foremost linguists of his time, devoted himself chiefly to the languages of Asia, which he spoke almost all.
In this vehement critique of Champollion, published six months after the latter’s untimely death, he seeks—though not entirely in good faith—to call into question the method and results of the scholar from Grenoble, disputing in particular the priority and the significance of his discovery.
Rare first edition, illustrated at the end of the volume with two folding plates.
Only two copies recorded in the CCF (BnF and Strasbourg). Backer & Sommervogel III, 1242 (59).
Our copy is preserved in its original provisional yellow paper wrappers,
With a few minor spots of foxing on the folding plates.
The Neapolitan Jesuit Raffaele Garrucci (1811–1885) devoted his work to the study of the Church Fathers as well as to both pagan and Christian antiquities.
He became one of the foremost disciples of Father Giuseppe Marchi, alongside the renowned Giovanni Battista de Rossi.
Autograph note signed by Jean Paulhan, 20 lines in black ink addressed to Felia Leal, publisher of "Paroles transparentes," a work by Jean Paulhan illustrated with 14 original lithographs by Georges Braque.
Paperclip marks to the upper left corner.
The note refers to a planned collaboration with Marc Chagall:
"Saturday,
Dear Felia
well, Chagall approves of the short summary. He even seems delighted with it. He says he has had many such ideas. But we are to discuss it in a few days, when he passes through Paris. (He is attending the Rembrandt anniversary celebrations, to which he has been invited by the Netherlands – something he appears quite proud of). Jean P. sends his love."
Autograph envelope addressed by André Breton to his friend Géo Dupin, curator of the La Cour d'Ingres art gallery at 17 quai Voltaire, from whom the Pope of Surrealism acquired several paintings.
The address is written in black ink (some letters slightly smudged).
A well-preserved example.
Black-and-white photographic postcard depicting a young Ludmila Tcherina.
Pinholes to the corners of the card.
Signed autograph inscription by Ludmila Tcherina, in white felt-tip pen, to the prominent autograph collector Claude Armand: "A Claude bien amicalement Tcherina."
Provenance: from the collection of the renowned autograph collector Claude Armand.
First edition, with the author's facsimile signature and date "october 1940" on the endpaper.
Split hinges, some foxing on the endpapers.
Publisher's sand-colored cloth binding, black title-label on the front cover.
Handsome copy of this notebook reproducing 82 sketches made in London air-raid shelters during the Blitz.
“Yes I have sarcasm in my words, yes I do not know how to flatter and bend my back, how to beg in official salons […] I am nothing but a braying schemer, but if I had submitted - yes I would be comfortable."
Long autograph letter dated August 1896 and signed by Paul Gauguin to painter Daniel de Monfreid. Four pages in black ink on two lined sheets.
Small tears to margins not affecting the text, traces of folds inherent to sending.
In the midst of his descent into hell, abandoned in his Tahitian artificial paradise, Gauguin feels cursed : “Definitely, I was born under a bad star.”, he laments. His quest for primitive freedom leaves him in destitution and misery. Suffering agony, the painter sends paintings to one of his few supporters, his faithful friend Daniel de Monfreid - but writes the wrong address...
Published in Lettres de Paul Gauguin à Georges-Daniel de Monfreid, 1918, p. 146, n° XXIII; our letter reveals the name of Émile Schuffenecker, his friend and associate on the Paris stock exchange and then Pont-Aven - anonymized in the published version - whom Gauguin vilifies on numerous occasions in these pages.
This exceptional missive was written in Tahiti, where the painter had returned the previous year, bidding a final farewell to the old Europe. Gauguin had just come out from a stay in hospital in Papeete to treat his bruised legs following the beating he had received in Concarneau two years earlier for defending his muse, Annah the Javanese. The painter could not escape the aftermath of this altercation and suffered from a terrible purulent eczema on his leg, as well as syphilis, drowning his torments in alcohol. The letter is a perfect example of Gauguin's correspondence from the summer of 1896 which "smells of the fever that has seized a mind overheated by pain and lack of sleep" (David Haziot). In his confusion, the painter misspelt the address of Monfreid's studio at the Cité Fleurie, a famous chalet-like artists' residence where Gauguin had stayed : “I sent you a bunch of paintings last month. I'm afraid for them because it seems to me that I put 55 Bd Arago instead of 65” This mailing included his composition Eihaha Ohipa, painted in his studio in Punaauia and now kept at the Pushkin Museum in Moscow. Shipped via a naval officer - fees to be paid by Monfreid - the paintings did not arrive until November. Beyond his feverish fears, Gauguin delivers in these lines a true manifesto of his integrity as an artist - the perfect counterpart to his famous Christlike self-portrait Near Golgotha, painted around the same period. To him, his destiny and generosity are nothing short of Christ-like: “in the most difficult moments of my life, I more than shared with unfortunate people and never had any reward other than complete abandonment”. He had in fact helped display Schuffenecker's paintings in Impressionist exhibitions, saved his friend Laval from suicide and opened his purse to so many others. Instead of returning the favor, Schuffenecker prefers to feel sorry for himself: “Schuff really wrote me a crazy and unfair letter and I don't know what to answer because he is a sick mind [...] he would be more unhappy than me who has glory, strength and health. Let's talk about it! I'm good at making others jealous, he says”. Gauguin, who had always refused to make concessions and compromise, is finally betrayed by one of his closest relations, Schuffenecker, who becomes in the letter a true Judas Iscariot: “Schuff has just made a useless petition, I believe, for the State to come to my aid. This is the thing that can offend me the most. I'm asking friends to help me out for the time it takes to get back the money I'm owed, and their efforts to recover it, but begging the State was never my intention”. The painter reaches a point of no return, not only bruised in his flesh, but also in his self-esteem: “All my efforts to fight outside the official arena, the dignity I have strived for all my life, are now losing their character. From this day I am nothing but a braying schemer, but if I had submitted - yes I would be comfortable. Really, this is a sorrow that I didn't intend to have. Definitely, I was born under a bad star.” After this final abandonment, Gauguin gave free rein to his artistic and sensual frenzy in his Maison du Jouir in the Marquesas.
Suffering and penniless, Gauguin proclaims his distress and shattered pride - a Nabi Christ abandoning his cross, ready to fall into lust and the intoxication of the paintbrush.
Autograph letter dated and signed by Edgar Degas, addressed to the dealer Charles Deschamps, director of Durand-Ruel’s London branch. Three pages in ink on a bifolium.
Minor marginal tears not affecting the text, folds from mailing.
Recently returned from New Orleans, Degas writes to his London dealer to announce the imminent arrival of a delicate composition of dancers, Le Foyer de la danse à l’Opéra de la rue Le Peletier, now held at the Musée d’Orsay: "In the meantime you will receive the little picture you saw in progress and which you had the idea of selling to Mr. Huth - May you succeed! [...] As for the price, it seems to me that £150 to £200 is fair" Deschamps fulfilled the painter’s wishes and sold the painting to Louis Huth, financier and patron of Whistler, for £140. The canvas would later enter the distinguished collection of Isaac de Camondo.
Degas turned towards London at a time when the English art market offered relief from the collapse that followed the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. He placed great hopes in this expanding British market, fuelled by lucrative blockbuster exhibitions drawing millions of visitors; Degas’s canvases were shown in eight exhibitions of the Société des Artistes Français. Although he often mentions financial difficulties in his correspondence "At the end of the month I have quite a lot to pay. If some money came in, I would be delighted [...] - Take care of me, my dear Deschamps, I would be most obliged - Tell me also if the season is not too far advanced. I fear it is" his career across the Channel was flourishing and his sales profitable. The painter does not fail to salute the "French colony" of expatriate artists, Giuseppe de Nittis and his close friend James Tissot, whose financial success provided Degas with an example of how effectively a French painter’s work could be marketed in England. Unlike Tissot, however, Degas refused to adapt to market taste, focusing instead on defending the Impressionist cause in France and abroad.
He also devotes a passage to a voracious collector of his works, the baritone Jean-Baptiste Faure, patron of his celebrated series of canvases on the Paris Opéra and owner of Manet’s Déjeuner sur l’herbe: "I ought to have been in London some time ago, according to what I said. I am not there because the picture for [Jean-Baptiste] Faure is not finished, and I would not like to meet him there without being able to give him better news, and I hardly have time to dawdle if I want not to arrive on the 1st of September with nothing to deliver to him". Ironically, Faure would later reproach Degas for leaving his canvases unfinished (!) and even sue him a few years afterwards.
A rare and exceptional letter tracing the history of one of Degas’s celebrated works and his dealings with dealers and collectors, on the eve of the first Impressionist exhibition to be held the following year.
Manuscript list by André Malraux (20 lines in blue ballpoint pen) providing details and instructions for André Parinaud concerning the publication of his works forming the "Ecrits sur l'art" collection illustrated with photographs by Roger Parry.
Fold marks inherent to postal mailing.
Resistance member and contributor to Combat, André Parinaud was a journalist, columnist, art critic and writer. From 1959 to 1967, he held the position of editor-in-chief of the important weekly Arts bringing together the elite of French creation in all artistic fields : literature, painting, theater, cinema... He would then conduct more than 1000 radio interviews with the greatest writers and artists including Salvador Dali, Louis-Ferdinand Céline, Colette, Paul Léautaud, André Breton, Georges Simenon and André Malraux... While continuing to work at O.R.T.F. and on radio, he founded several festivals or artistic events such as Le Festival international du film d'art, l'Académie nationale des arts de la rue.
First edition, a Service de Presse (advance) copy.
Iconography at rear.
Precious autograph inscription signed by André Malraux to the diplomat and great resistance fighter, faithful among the faithful of General De Gaulle, Gaston Palewski to whom this work is dedicated below the printed dedication: "C'est pour vous distraire. Vous recevrez vos exemplaires convenables la semaine prochaine" ["This is to entertain you. You will receive your proper copies next week"].
First edition published in 20 instalments, illustrated with wood-engraved vignettes in the text after Célestin Nanteuil, Français, Karl Girardet, Jules David, etc., and 20 copper-engraved or lithographed plates after Diaz, Decamps, Hazé, A. Guignet, E. Hedouin, Théodore Chasseriau, Alophe, Couture, etc. The original covers of all instalments are bound at the end. The covers erroneously announce 30 engravings instead of the 20 actually included.
Later binding in red Russian half morocco with corners, spine in five raised bands richly gilt, date in gilt at foot, gilt fillet frame on pasteboard covers. Considerable rubbing and bumped corners.
Provenance: from the library of Victor Mercier, with his Art Nouveau bookplate engraved by Adolphe Giraldon.
First edition illustrated with 15 original copperplate engravings, including 10 in color, by Maurice de Vlaminck, one of 250 numbered copies on Arches laid paper.
The work is also illustrated with 2 portraits by Amedeo Modigliani depicting Maurice de Vlaminck and his wife.
Full Empire green morocco binding, spine with two prominent raised bands extending as triangles in blind on the covers, spine decorated with three gilt lozenges with gilt title and separated by a transverse gilt bar, marbled paper endpapers and pastedowns, triple gilt fillets framing the pastedowns, covers and spine preserved, top edge gilt, Empire green morocco-edged slipcase, marbled paper boards, contemporary binding signed by the workshops of C. Muller, Nancy bookbinder.
Manuscript signature by Maurice de Vlaminck in pencil below his frontispiece portrait.
Spine slightly darkened, otherwise a handsome copy.
