Valentine HUGO.

  2. Result
  3. Valentine HUGO.
  4. Lot n° 195 
Lot n° 195
Go to lot
Estimation :
8000 - 12000 EUR
Result with fees
Result : 42 900EUR
Valentine HUGO.
Dream of February 12, 1930. Portrait of André Breton]. Original pencil drawing heightened with India ink, captioned, dated and signed upper right (46.7 x 29.8 cm); under glass, natural wood frame. Attached: Valentine HUGO. Account of the dream of the] night of February 11-12, 1930. Autograph manuscript, 1 page in-folio on blue paper. Famous portrait of André Breton by Valentine Hugo: exceptional original drawing signed, to which is attached the autograph manuscript of the painter relating the dream that gave rise to the composition. Rue Vignon place de la Madeleine night of February 11-12, 1930. I dream that I wake up with a start as if someone had just entered. I see before me in the almost complete darkness of my room half of B.'s body caught in ice crystals. The face is pale as always. Drops of blood are at the bottom of the face - one near a temple - the head slightly bowed. In place of the heart is a flower like a carpet flower but it is made of reddish congealed blood. I approach very slowly and with my breath I try to melt the ice around the flower. It gives way little by little. The water appears everywhere, but as B. revives, I feel my warmth gradually disappear and I in turn freeze. In love with André Breton, whom she had met as early as 1918 and of whom she executed several portraits, Valentine Hugo (1887-1968) confessed towards the end of her life: "Paul Eluard and André Breton, whom I have always admired in their works, saved me from despair as early as 1930." An excessive passion from which Breton kept his distance for a long time. In 1930, "she wrote him long, passionate letters almost daily, which both moved and irritated the recipient" (Stéphanie Caron). The affair between the painter and the writer, which began in July 1931, lasted barely a year. The drawing was exhibited in 1995 at the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris as part of Passions Privées (cat. p. 194, no. 34.) (Anthologie Plastique du Surréalisme, 1990, reproduced on p. 136 - Dictionnaire André Breton, pp. 510-512: note by Stéphanie Caron).
My orders
Sale information
Sales conditions
Return to catalogue