Description

Three handwritten versions of this text by André Breton about the work of Jacques Le Maréchal, dated 7 October 1960.

“Le Maréchal's cities," writes Bachelard, "are built on earthquakes.” This quotation is appended as a note supplementing a critical text of Breton’s own, in which he speaks of the Apocalypse, to characterise a painting that embraces both the movement of its time and, implicitly, the tremors of the past. It was for an exhibition organised by Robert Cordier that Breton, in October 1960, dedicated this preface to a painter and engraver who had already shown two works at the EROS exhibition in 1959. Breton's text was included in the definitive edition of Le Surréalisme et la peinture (Surrealism and Painting) in 1965. [Atelier André Breton website, 2005]

Signed autograph manuscripts, Paris, 7 October 1960

- 1 page in-4° handwritten, titled, dated and signed in ink by Breton, with erasures and corrections, of this first draft text devoted to Le Maréchal's painting, on the verso of D'Arcy Galleries letterheaded paper:

" ‘There were visions behind the gauze of the curtains’: Rimbaud would never forgive de Musset for having disregarded them through indolence... It is there that, with the periwinkle of his eye... 

"Le Maréchal keeps watch on the destinies that are in store for us. He alone knows that visions are still a gauze behind which other gauzes of visions are concealed, and so on: hence his despair at having to reckon with human time, which wrench his works away from him before he has been able to finish them (that is to say, to strip back successive layers to reach the incandescent core)...

"Just like Henri Rousseau’s gaze upon the Eiffel Tower… Le Maréchal, without having lost any of his freshness, and despite any inescapable pessimistic nuances, gazes upon both the Empire State Building and the chasms that measure its dimensions.”

- 1 page in-4° handwritten in first draft, titled ‘Maréchal’ and signed by Breton, with a few erasures and corrections of this biographical note on Maréchal, on the back of letterheaded paper from D'Arcy Galleries, New York.

- 1 page in-4° handwritten, titled and neatly signed by Breton of the second stage of this notice on the verso of letterheaded paper from D'Arcy Galleries, New York. [Sale Catalogue, 2003]

Bibliography

André Breton (Édition publiée sous la direction d'Étienne-Alain Hubert avec la collaboration de Philippe Bernier et Marie-Claire Dumas), « Le Maréchal », Le Surréalisme et la Peinture, Œuvres complètes, tome IV, Écrits sur l'art et autres textes, Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, Paris, Gallimard, 2008, pages 670 à 671, notice et notes p. 1343.

 

Creation date	07/10/1960
Bibliographical material	1 page in-4° - 1 page in-4° - 1 page in-4°, all three handwritten on D'Arcy Galleries letterheaded paper.
Languages	French
Physical description	Ms - encre bleue
Number of pages	3
Reference	706000
Breton Auction, 2003	Lot 2487
Keywords	Work notes, Painting
Categories	Andre Breton's Manuscripts
Set	[Breton's Manuscripts and Drawings] dossier Le Surréalisme et la peinture
Exhibition	Le Maréchal
Permanent link	https://cms.andrebreton.fr/en/work/56600100334920

See also