Robert DESNOS.

Lot 84
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6000 - 8000 EUR
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Result : 11 000EUR
Robert DESNOS.
Contrée. Etching by Picasso. Paris, Robert J. Godet, 1944. Large in-8, green half-maroquin in the Bradel style with stripes, smooth back, untrimmed, gilt head, cover and back preserved (S. Jacques). Original edition: it is illustrated with an etching by Picasso on the frontispiece. Edition at 213 copies, including three of collaborators. Number I of the first 10 on Arches paper, signed by Picasso and comprising an etching state in black, three states in colors (green, red and blue) and a crossed-out copper state. "Contrée" is dedicated "to Youki" who shared the poet's life since 1930. In the final poem, The Epitaph, the poet proclaims: "Alive, fear me not, for I am dead. Nothing lives of my mind or body." A sad omen, because the Gestapo arrested Desnos on February 22, 1944, even before the book was published, and he died in deportation fifteen months later" (Goeppert). (Goeppert & Cramer, Pablo Picasso, catalogue raisonné des livres illustrés, nº 39 - Imbert, Robert J. Godet, publisher of Bataille, Michaux et Desnos, 2000, nº 12 - Johnson, Artists' Books in the Modern Era, 1870-2000, nº 68: "Picasso's etching of a massive female nude is sculptural in its form and complexity with elements of both Cubism and Surrealism evident. An innovative element of this volume is the reproduction of twenty-three fragments of this etching throughout the book, linking each poem back to the frontispiece").
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