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[Pere Infantin]

Manuscript

Author

Author André Breton
Person cited Barthélemy Prosper Enfantin, dit Père Enfantin

Description

Description

Two states of a manuscript by André Breton about Père Enfantin, undated.

This comes from an assorted set of texts, some of which must have been published (hence the note at the bottom of the page added to a work and mentioning the discovery of an unknown source relating to the Douanier Rousseau); the note on Père Enfantin, Charles Fourier’s principal disciple, and especially a quote from Michel Butor about Magritte help suggest dating this collection to the 1960s, perhaps 1965, the year of the L'Ecart absolu exhibition held, as we know, under the auspices of Fourier, as well as the year of the republication of the definitive version of Surrealism and Painting. Judging from the archives, in any event, these are some of the last texts Breton drafted or copied. In this dossier are also found notes on de Sade, a bibliographic note on the editor Pierre André Benoit (several of whose works are contained in Breton’s library), games, bibliographic notations that might have been intended for an auction, and reading notes on painting that could also be linked to work for Surrealism and Painting. [Atelier André Breton website, 2005]

Handwritten manuscripts, undated.
- 1 in-4° page, first draft handwritten manuscript with numerous deletions and corrections by André Breton relating to Père Enfantin and his precepts.

- 1 in-4° page, handwritten manuscript of the same text with a few deletions and corrections: 

‘Enfantin’s message, one that in his own time curs of every kind never ceased to interfere with and whose transmission down to us they fairly effectively managed to prevent, but that through this very fact retains all of its spark, contains all of its vigour in its two precepts: the Christian anathema against the flesh must be lifted at all costs, and secondly at all costs one must encourage the enfranchisement of women by women (the subsequently claimed conquest of this by feminism being needless to say its absolute negation)...’. [Auction catalogue, 2003]

Translated by Krzysztof Fijalkowski