SAINT-EXUPÉRY (Antoine de) - Lot 425

Lot 425
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Estimation :
75000 - 100000 EUR
SAINT-EXUPÉRY (Antoine de) - Lot 425
SAINT-EXUPÉRY (Antoine de) A collection of 51 original drawings. [1920s and 1940s]. Set of 51 drawings on 51 ff. in-12 and in-8 (various sizes) of Navarre cream paper, all in black and coloured pencils except one in blue ink, mounted on tabs in a large in-4 album (27 x 19.5 cm), half-maroquin blue night sky posterior, smooth spine. Important series of 51 original drawings by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, of which 17 signed and 1 captioned ("Shy young man"). Set of surprising drawings representing faces and figures in bust or foot. Only one stands out from the others in terms of its theme and craftsmanship: The Little Prince on his Planet (no. 49), in blue ink, signed and dated 1940. "On the whole, the dominant features of Saint-Exupéry's plastic work are the line drawings, the main quality of which is to assert the primacy of the silhouette and contour: the line models and encircles the shape of the curves [...]. A few colour highlights and a few discreet or stylized hatchings give discreet relief and a slight volume to the characters" (D. Lacroix, 2006, p. 11). The drawings, which date from the late 1920s, were intended for Renée de Saussine (1897-1988), nicknamed "Rinette", Saint-Exupéry's "invented friend" and sister of one of his high school classmates. He fell in love with her in the mid-1920s after the painful break-up with Louise de Vilmorin. She would not respond to his advances. According to Jules Roy, "she missed the love of a prince only to provoke his disenchantment" ("To the end he will have begged for friendship", Biblio, March 1955). A series of 25 letters that he addressed to Renée de Saussine until 1931 was published under the title Letters to the Invented Friend, which she prefaces in 1953. Although this correspondence makes no mention of these drawings, 11 of them were nevertheless reproduced in the illustrated edition of Letters to the Invented Friend, published by Plon in 1953, with a preface by the addressee. These and 2 others from the same
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