BERNARD Émile. Collection of 66 large original wash drawings - Lot 108

BERNARD Émile. Collection of 66 large original wash drawings, most of them signed: illustration project for John Milton's Le Paradis perdu (from Chateaubriand's translation, 1836). Paris, circa 1936-1938; 66 ff. large folio (375 x 290 mm), bound in black morocco, ribbed spine (Jansenist?). MAGNIFICENT UNPUBLISHED ILLUSTRATION PROJECT COMPRISING 66 POWERFUL ORIGINAL WASHES, INCLUDING FIFTEEN SKETCHES BY PAINTER ÉMILE BERNARD (1868-1941). A friend of Van Gogh, Cézanne and Gauguin, and founder of the Pont-Aven School with the latter, he illustrated a dozen books with original engravings, including six published by Ambroise Vollard: Les Fleurs du mal (two different editions), the Odyssey, Les Petites fleurs de saint François, Villon, Ronsard... We owe him nearly 1,400 compositions drawn and engraved in his own hand. ATTACHED TO THIS EXCEPTIONAL COLLECTION ARE 28 LETTERS AND AUTOGRAPH CARDS FROM ÉMILE BERNARD relating to the project, addressed to the publisher, the Swiss Albert-Louis Natural, bibliophile and later Swiss ambassador to China (1918-2002), and 11 duplicate typewritten letters from him. Painter, poet and art critic, the artist points out the difficulties of executing the program: "The powerful side of Satan in revolt is such as to produce admirable compositions through grandeur and ardent energy". Stating that his inspiration was capricious, he regretted not being able to set a date for completion. However, on August 21, 1938, he wrote: "My work is finished; but I don't consider it as such; for in reading and rereading Milton's work, a constant number of images appear, of which my fifty-two drawings [sic, for 66] are a weak version [...]. It would have taken a Michelangelo for such a task". Then the question of the printing process arises: "Do you envisage a mechanical reproduction of the drawings, or their engraving as etchings by my hand? It seems to me that this would give them a bibliophilic value...". As the etching trials were unsuccessful, Natural suggested lithography, claiming that the strength of the drawings translated by this process would bring the illustration of Milton closer to that of Delacroix's Faust. Discussions broke down at the end of 1938. The outbreak of war 39-45 and the death of Émile Bernard in 1941 put an end to the project. From the A.L. Natural library, Paris, December 7-8, 2009, no. 407.32 Tuesday, May 23, 2023 - 2:00 pm. **