ROUAULT GEORGES (1871-1958). - Lot 228

Lot 228
Go to lot
Estimation :
3000 - 4000 EUR
Result with fees
Result : 3 250EUR
ROUAULT GEORGES (1871-1958). - Lot 228
ROUAULT GEORGES (1871-1958). L.A.S. "Georges Rouault" and 21 autographed POEMS, [ca. 1930?], to the editor of the Petit Parisien Élie-Joseph BOIS; 3 pages in-4, and 21 pages in-4 or in-fol. on fine paper (some minor restorations). Important letter on his activity as a poet, closely linked to his painting, accompanied by a set of 21 poems. After a quatrain ("Amphion on his lyre"...), "refrain of circumstance for the devastated regions", he replies to Bois: "You wonder if I have remained a painter. Yes, of course". Before going to see him, he presented him with "little poems 'à la bonne franquette'", for which he was waiting for an answer from American magazines. "I dream of rediscovering the tone of the old French songs [...] I have a sort of remorse for not having tried the publishers here in France, but I don't have the material time to bother because of the work in progress. Within twelve months I will have a thousand of these little sheets that I am sending you, some of which are twenty years old. Some of them are twenty years old. There are some on 1) Darkness. 2. Peace. 3° Crayons d'Ingres. 4° Stella matutina. 5° Stella vespertina. 6° Circus. 7° Ocean etc. etc." He wonders if it can make "a big, very big print run [...] Without being of an aggressive nationalism I have a kind of regret that it goes to people perhaps? hostile! because I feel there all the same a French bottom [...] I will need at least ten months to put all in the net. At that time we will be able to publish regularly, but I cannot commit myself for the moment to a regular work in a newspaper or magazine - I have too much to do - even once a week, but in the future it will be possible. However, he wishes to reserve his copyright, "because small light collections of 40 to 60 pages will be made after publication in newspapers or magazines"... The 21 autographed POEMS (3 are signed "G.R."), each on a page in-4, give a fairly complete sample of Rouault's poetic art; some will be published and collected in Paysages légendaires (1929), Poèmes (1929), Le Cirque de l'Étoile filante (1938), or Miserere (1948); some have erasures and corrections. Two poems are related to Ténèbres: "Il ne faut pas réveiller les morts"..., "Sur l'horizon noir / Caïn est couché"..., and one to Paix: "Guerre ! / Paix répond le vieux berger"... The cycle Crayons d'Ingres is represented by 7 poems, humorous tributes to the great painters, including the Introduction: "Grand Dominique / to speak so much of your drawings"..., "This melancholic painter"..., "Legend or truth / Grand Dominique, in front of Rubens"...", "Sworn experts / Will show us"..., "Monsieur Homais said"..., "The Sun King did not like Teniers"..., "Objective of deflating".... Two poems for Stella Matutina: "Les eaux tumultueuses"..., "Harmonie claire ne vois tu pas"...; one for Stella Vespertina: "Mère sereine berce ma peine" ....; one for Cirque: "Clowns traditionnalistes"...; three for Océan: "O mer / que d'espoirs et de peines"..., "Dixmude perdu bondit dans la tempête"..., "Ma doué / bon marin marinant en saumure"... (dedicated "To the children of the men of Dixmude"). Finally, two poems for Eve: "Eve freed to silk stockings / has renounced"..., "On your bed relieved of sorrows"...; one for Va nu pieds: "Leprous and deserted fortifications"...; and one for Panaché: "This wind-loving fool"... Attached are the corrected proofs of the poem Stella vespertina (2 printed ff. mounted on 2 p. in-4), overwritten with autograph corrections and additions, for publication in the journal Funambules of December 1, 1926: "Our Pierrot / in Ténèbres chantais-tu matines?"...
My orders
Sale information
Sales conditions
Return to catalogue