Lot n° 85
Estimation :
3000 - 4000
EUR
Result with fees
Result
: 5 590EUR
COCTEAU JEAN (1889-1963). - Lot 85
COCTEAU JEAN (1889-1963).
52 L.A.S. "Jean", of which 8 with drawings, 1957-1963, to Jean TRIQUENOT; 60 pages in-4 or in-8, several on the letterhead of Santo-Sospir, 3 envelopes.
Important unpublished correspondence with the architect who helped Cocteau to realize his chapels in Villefranche-sur-Mer, London and Fréjus. This correspondence goes from January 20, 1957 to October 2, 1963, that is to say nine days before Cocteau's death. 8 letters are illustrated: 3 are with profiles of male characters (including a legionnaire's head), 5 with sketches or plans related to the realization of the buildings. Chapelle Saint-Pierre, in Villefranche-sur-Mer. In 1957, Cocteau spoke of his administrative difficulties in returning the Saint-Pierre chapel, which had been used by fishermen as a net storage area, to its original function. Cocteau, who had left for a cure in Saint-Moritz, made sure that the work was going well in his absence: "It would be serious for me to learn from afar that things were staying put, whereas I had calculated this cure in such a way that it would not delay my work in any way. I am very keen on your help, precisely because of your profound superiority over the technician, who only gives me a flat help". The fishermen don't understand anything about his work: "These fishermen want to get money, but they never take it out of their pockets. [...] The only thing is that I don't want to give them the impression that they can count on me, apart from the sublime effort that I devote to them" (January 20). He gives Triquenot directives for the realization of the frescoes: "I will be very grateful to you in my absence to lead our artist to Menton and to make him draw a character on the wall of the wedding with the model Bichon (dark bistre) so that on my return I will decide everything" (July 4). He reassures him as for the choice of the craftsman: "Do not worry your painter is remarkable and what marks me is a bright and pure orange" (August 22). Chapel of the Virgin in the church Notre-Dame de France, in London. The English agreement having been given in April 1958, Cocteau launches the preparatory work on the walls: they are done at Triquenot, by his son. "The models are in London. Gaou's work would consist of perfecting the locations and the coating that would unify the wall of the triptych. He would prepare everything and bring the models back to me in order to prepare the final decor together" (16 April 1958). Once this work was done, he sent the exact measurements (with a plan) of the set to be made: "Here are the exact measurements [plan]. The embassy waits with impatience"... (April 28). But his health problems handicap him: "My health falls to the bottom and does not allow me any more any thing of this kind. I will try to go up the slope in the mountains. [...] I will need you for the inscription above the door of the room of the town hall" [room of marriages at the Town Hall of Menton] (August 6, 1958). His health even delays the work: "I do not see myself in London in September and, in fact, before next spring. But I see you wonderfully preparing the work. That is why, as soon as I return to Cape Town, I will try to do the last panel of the Virgin" (August 17)... "I am gnawing at myself a little, because I am not sure that I can do it. I am gnawing at myself a little, because this hospital immobility (and on my back) falls on a period when I have a big job of presence. Fortunately, Doudou [Edouard Dermit] was able to go to Paris and telephone the mistakes and correct them. But one can only work well on the spot and with one's own hands. Besides, I don't believe that the Chapel [of London] and Menton are responsible for my globules, but the bile that I made for the film and the "bad blood" " (February 5, 1959). He asked his collaborator to build a model of the Chapel and to add a small box that he could top with another "like the chests of the tomb of Ramses". In a long letter, Cocteau details his modus operandi for creating these frescoes: "Although I don't yet know what I will do on the altar (perhaps simple quasi-geometric signs so as not to overwhelm the eye with images and pleonasms), I would like someone (I say someone, it's you, it's your son) to lay down very lightly with charcoal the lines of all the groups (so that this charcoal can be erased with a cloth or a feather duster). I will then change the final line. Then we will carefully iron these definitive lines with the colored lines (as in the Chapel, except that each person will have his own color instead of being in bistre)" (March 9, 1959). For the altar, he asked Triquenot to make a model of the chapel from which he could work better: "Be an angel: with your son, make me a real (photographic) model to scale of my entire work. (Build a cardboard altar). This will help me to imagine the altar" (February 1). But Cocteau slightly reprimands Triquenot, preferring that the
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