VERLAINE PAUL (1844-1896)

Lot 109
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Estimation :
15000 - 20000 EUR
VERLAINE PAUL (1844-1896)
Couple of monkeys and monkey self-portraits. Original drawing, with handwritten mention on the right: "Van der Verlaine fecit 1893. 5 rue de Phalsburg". Ink and pen, 18 x 23 cm This characteristic of Verlaine's physical appearance was notably underlined by his friend Edmond Lepelletier in Paul Verlaine, sa vie son oeuvre (1907): "Old, his ungainly and bizarre, asymmetrical physiognomy, with his humpbacked skull and Camard-like nose, still seemed bearable. We could see her shining with the radiance of spirit, and haloed with the radiance of talent. One got used to its faunal mask, when it laughed, to its sinister aspect, when it kept a serious look [...]. But in his youth he was grotesquely ugly; he resembled, not the mongoloid type, as has been said, but a monkey [...]".
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