Nadja - Lot 87

Lot 87
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Estimation :
4000 - 6000 EUR
Result with fees
Result : 30 052EUR
Nadja - Lot 87
Nadja Ɵ La Fleur des Amants. Original drawing signed, 1926-1927 (17.1 x 24.8 cm), framed. Original graphite drawing on heavy paper signed "Nadja", one of the few she kept beyond her meeting with André Breton when she was institutionalized until her death. This drawing, dating from late 1926 or early 1927, is one of the few Nadja (real name Léona Delcourt) kept when she was committed in March 1927, shortly after her relationship with André Breton, which began in late 1926. Apart from a few isolated examples (From Stendhal to René Char, le Cabinet de Livres de Renaud Gillet, Sotheby's, London, October 27, 1999, no. 82 ; Collection Pierre Leroy, Grands Écrivains Surréalistes et de l'Après-guerre, Sotheby's, Paris, June 26, 2002, nos. 48-51), almost all of Nadja's letters and drawings were held in the Destribats collection and the Bibliothèque Littéraire Jacques Doucet (André Breton - 42, rue Fontaine, Drouot / Calmels-Cohen, April 11-12, 14 2003, nos. 2119-2124, 4020 ; Paul Destribats, Bibliothèque des Avant-gardes, 1ère partie, tome 1, Christie's, Paris, July 3, 2019, no. 211-213). In Nadja, his best-known and most controversial book, Breton writes on page 159 of the original 1928 edition: "Nadja has invented for me a marvelous flower: 'La Fleur des Amants'. It was during a luncheon in the country that this flower appeared to her, and I saw her, with great inability, try to reproduce it. She returned to it several times to improve the drawing and give the two looks a different expression. It is essentially under this sign that the time we spent together must be placed, and it remains the graphic symbol that gave Nadja the key to all the others". A reproduction of one of these drawings from La Fleur des Amants appears in the book. Provenance: Daughter then granddaughter of Léona Delcourt, known as "Nadja"; Paul Destribats, certificate from Étienne-Alain Hubert and Nadja's granddaughter, C. Deballez.
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