SAINT-EXUPÉRY Antoine de (1900-1944). - Lot 123

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  3. SAINT-EXUPÉRY Antoine de (1900-1944). - Lot 123
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Lot n° 123
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SAINT-EXUPÉRY Antoine de (1900-1944). - Lot 123
SAINT-EXUPÉRY Antoine de (1900-1944). 51 original DRAWINGS, 17 signed and 2 captioned, [ca. 1920-1940]; 51 ff. various sizes, mostly 21 x 13.5 cm, mounted on tabs on laid paper ff., in a small in-4 volume, half-maroquin midnight blue spine smooth. Important series of 51 original drawings by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry for his friend Renée de Saussine. The drawings, on cream Navarre paper, are all in black and colored pencils, mainly red and blue, except one in blue ink. "On the whole, the dominant characteristics of Saint-Exupéry's plastic work are the line drawings whose main quality is to affirm the primacy of the silhouette and the outline: the line models and circles the shape of the curves [...]. A few highlights of color and a few discreet or stylized hatchings give discrete relief and a slight volume to the characters" (D. Lacroix, 2006, p. 11). The drawings, which date from the end of the 1920s, were intended for Renée de SAUSSINE (1897-1988), nicknamed "Rinette", Saint-Exupéry's "invented friend" and the sister of one of his high school classmates. He became fond of her in the mid-1920s after a painful break with Louise de Vilmorin. She would not have responded to his advances. According to Jules Roy, "she missed the love of a prince to provoke only his disenchantment" ("Until 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 Lettres à l'amie inventée (Letters to the invented friend) which she prefaced in 1953. Although this correspondence makes no mention of these drawings, eleven of them were nevertheless reproduced in the illustrated edition of Lettres à l'amie inventée, published by Plon in 1953, with a preface by the addressee. These and two others from the same series have since been reprinted in several publications, but the other 38 have remained unpublished. They represent faces and characters in bust or full-length, often caricatured or humorous. Only one stands out from the others by its theme and its workmanship: the Little Prince on his planet (n° 49), in blue ink, signed and dated 1940. The first one represents a cat-woman. We also notice a beautiful portrait of a woman in profile (5), probably René de Saussine, which we find again later (12 to 14 in bust, and 27), female nudes with tomboy hairstyle (7, 16, 38), a little boy in sailor suit (9), a sailor's head (29), an angel (44). Several are signed "StEx", others "SaintExupéry" (including a woman's head in profile). One is captioned "Tamino" (18), another one announcing the character of the Little Prince: "Young shy man by Tonino" Bibliography: Album Antoine de SaintExupéry, Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, 1994, p. 66-67 (partial repr.). N. des Vallières, R. de Ayala, Les plus beaux manuscrits de Saint Exupéry, 2003, p. 136 (partial reprint). D. Lacroix, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry : dessins, aquarelles, pastels, plumes et crayons, 2006, p. 112-119 (partial reprint).
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