En avril 1944 : Paris respirait encore !

First edition of this poem by Paul Eluard, lithographed after his manuscript, accompanying the seven gouaches by Jean Hugo reproduced in pochoir. One of 948 numbered copies on vélin pur fil.

Wrappers with turned-in flaps, in loose gatherings. Wrappers slightly soiled with a few instances of foxing, shallow wormholes to the front cover.

Autograph presentation inscription signed by the author to Jacques Coutant: "à Jacques Coutant dans Paris délivré mais encore convalescent" ["To Jacques Coutant, in Paris - liberated, yet still convalescent"].

"Ville au travers de tout comme

un sentier d'été, plein de fleurs

et d'oiseaux, comme un baiser

profond plein d'enfants souri-

ants, plein de mères fragiles.

 

Non, pas une ville ruinée, mais ville

compliquée, marquée par sa nudité." 

(Paul Eluard).

The seven gouaches, created by Victor Hugo's great-grandson in April 1944, were presented to Paul Eluard in 1945 and inspired him to write this poem. In contrast to his committed wartime poetry of the Occupation years - direct and at times harsh - these verses, written after the Liberation, breathe a new freshness born of the hope for peace, and lean instead toward a poetry of memory and relief. This sense of renewal is further reinforced by the nature of the publication itself: whereas during the war Eluard's Resistance writings circulated clandestinely, published under pseudonyms in stripped-down editions, the present work already belongs to the realm of bibliophile publishing - a meeting point between poet and artist orchestrated by an art gallery.

Provenance: the year following this publication, Paul Eluard made a remarkable gift of fifty-seven autograph manuscript poems from the 1920s to Jacques Coutant (1904-1987), a senior police official and crossword compiler under the pseudonym Roger La Ferté. While the friendship between Paul Eluard and Jacques Coutant does not appear to be documented in the bibliographical or biographical sources on the poet, it is nonetheless attested by this generous gift as well as by the fine inscription gracing the present copy.