Lot n° 187
Estimation :
100000 - 200000
EUR
Result with fees
Result
: 585 000EUR
Paul VERLAINE (1844-1896) - Lot 187
Paul VERLAINE (1844-1896)
Portrait of Arthur Rimbaud, June 1872
Pen and brown ink drawing on paper, titled, dated and monogrammed P.V. middle right, annotated "de mémoire" lower right. Annotated a second time in pencil lower right in another hand "sketch by Paul Verlaine" 12.7 x 9.9 cm (in view) 12.7 x10 cm (top of sheet) 12.7 x 9.8 cm (bottom of sheet)
Horizontal folds. Insulation. Small pinholes in left margin. Sheet slightly trimmed on right side.
(Condition report on request)
Provenance :
- Hugues Gall Collection
- Paul-Annick Weiller Collection (probably by descent)
- Probably Léon Vanier, publisher of Rimbaud's Poésies complètes in 1895 with a preface by Paul Verlaine (in any case, it was Madame Léon Vanier who sent the photograph of the drawing to the Revue d'Ardenne et d'Argonne for reproduction in the January-February issue in 1897. We believe she may have been in possession of the original).
Bibliography:
- Arthur Rimbaud, Poésies complètes, Vanier, 1895 (with a preface by Paul Verlaine) Our drawing reproduced in the book's frontispiece, alongside another portrait of Rimbaud in a bowler hat by Verlaine.
- La Revue d'Ardenne et d'Argonne, January-February 1897, p. 63.
- La Revue Blanche, August 15, 1898
- Charles Donos, Verlaine Intime, Vanier, 1898, p.82.
- Jean Bourguignon and Charles Houin, Iconographie d'Arthur Rimbaud, Revue d'Ardenne et d'Argonne, November 1, 1900, p.191 (described)
- François Ruchon, Rimbaud, documents iconographiques, Pierre Cailler Éditeur, 1946 (reproduced under n°XIII)
- Henri Matarasso, Album Rimbaud, la pléiade, Gallimard, 1967. Rimbaud à la pipe, June 1872, p.139.
- Arthur Rimbaud (1854-1891) Portraits, dessins, manuscrits, Charleville-Mézières, Musée-Bibliothèque Rimbaud, September 6-October 6, 1991, Paris, Musée d'Orsay, October 22, 1991-January 12, 1992, p. 54 (cat. 44). Not exhibited.
- Jean-Jacques Lefrère, Face à Rimbaud, Phébus,2006, p.54 and 55.
Related works:
- Paul Verlaine, Rimbaud à la pipe, June 1872 (Musée Rimbaud collection, Charleville-Mézières, inventory number AR 994.2.1) "Il est un autre. Portraits de Rimbaud", October 12 - January 52025, Maison des Ailleurs, Charleville-Mézières.
Rimbaud Verlaine, Parallèlement, June 23-September 30, 2018, Musée Arthur Rimbaud, Charleville-Mézières.
Exhibition organized for the hundredth anniversary of his birth. Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, November 23 1954 - January 31 1955. Catalog by Suzanne Briet, Anne-Marie Habrial, Lise Dubief. Preface by Julien Cain (n°233, Henri Matarasso collection).
- Paul Verlaine, Croquis de Rimbaud au chapeau melon, Annotated "reproduction d'un croquis de Paul Verlaine [...] Xbre 86". (Vanier 1895, Revue d'Ardenne et d'Argonne 1897).
The pencil original belongs to F-A.Cazals (Jean Bourguignon and Charles Houin, Iconographie d'Arthur Rimbaud, Revue d'Ardenne et d'Argonne, November 1, 1900, p.191).
Another identical drawing in Paul Verlaine's notebooks (Jean-Jacques Lefrère, Face à Rimbaud, Phébus, 2006, p.66 and 67).
A unique testimony to French literary history, this drawing is one of the best-known images of Arthur Rimbaud, chosen by Verlaine as the frontispiece to the Poésies complètes published by Léon Vanier in 1895. Never exhibited, it remained a secret in major private collections for 130 years. Its reappearance is therefore a surprise, a major rediscovery and a particularly moving event. Probably kept by Léon Vanier's widow, who provided a reproduction for the Revue d'Ardenne et d'Argonne in 1897, along with the second frontispiece drawing (Rimbaud au chapeau melon), it belonged to Paul-Annick Weiller (son of the great collector Paul-Louis Weiller), who passed it on to Hugues Gall. Director of the Claude Monet Foundation since 2008, he installed it in his office in Giverny.
Drawn "from memory" by Verlaine, it depicts Rimbaud with his hands in his pockets, hat screwed on his head, smoking a pipe, in that "pedestrian "1 or "walker "2 attitude so often attributed to him. The date of this drawing - June 1872 - is particularly significant. It represents a decisive moment in Arthur Rimbaud's literary life.
At the end of September 1871, after several elopements to the capital, Rimbaud met Verlaine in Paris. Verlaine introduced him to literary circles. Expected and desired, the presence of this "dear great soul", whose poetic genius had already been unanimously recognized, fascinated as much as it disconcerted. Verlaine himself, "as enthusiastic as he was (...) couldn't contain his dismay at seeing a pale, beardless, skinny kid where he'd expected to find him".
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