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On Aloys Zotl's studio

Manuscript

Author

Author André Breton
People cited Henri, dit le Douanier Rousseau, Aloys Zötl

Description

Manuscript by André Breton dated 21 March 1956 for an introduction to Aloys Zotl's paintings in the catalogue for and auction to be held on 3 May 1956.

This introductory text, written for the sale of 170 watercolours by Zötl at Drouot, is thus dated 21 March, not 3 May as is sometimes indicated. We know that Breton bought two of them. The Austrian painter, who in certain respects is reminiscent of the douanier Rousseau, in his naivety appeared to Breton as one of those best able to express a feeling for nature that has been ‘repressed’ by the civilised, at a point where naive art meets that of the primitives... [Atelier André Breton website, 2005]

Signed autograph manuscript, Paris, 21 March 1956

- 1/2 page in-4° handwritten, dated and signed by André Breton, with a few erasures and corrections, of a text relating to the dispersal of the works, in two public sales, of the painter Aloys Zötl.

"A master dyer from Upper Austria who, from 1852 to 1887, with considerable dedication drew up the most sumptuous bestiary that had ever been seen. It is as if Zötl's eye, professionally trained in the subtle selection of colours and their tones, had come into possession of a mental prism that functioned as an instrument of clairvoyance, revealing to him, in a chain, the animal kingdom, including its most distant specimens. We know what an enigma this realm holds for each of us and the primordial role it plays in subconscious symbolism.” [Auction Catalogue, 2003].

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