Braque,The Boss

Braque, Le Patron (Braque, the boss) is a reference book on the work of the painter. Jean Paulhan, in nine parts, builds the portrait of the artist : "He is a little stooped. He works on ten drafts in the same time, some are resting on easels, others land on some sort of grils. He moves sometimes a leaf, a leg crab, a lizard skeleton, which are waiting for what on the table ? He is retouching. He is pruning. As a gardener among his plants. "

The writer also relates "The Myths of Georges Braque", a tasty compilation of anecdotes :
"Understand me, said Vollard, I am worried. If my Renoir burns and remains a small corner, I always know it's a Renoir. But if my Braque ... - Thanks to God, "said Braque. Who gave up that day to sign his paintings. "

Currently, the librairie Loliée offers :

• Braque (Georges) - Paulhan (Jean). Braque, le Patron. Paris, Geneva, Editions des Trois Collines, 1947, in-4, shirt and case. Edition illustrated with 64 reproductions of paintings and 2 lithographs by Georges Braque. Limited to 90 copies signed by the author and the painter. One of the first 25 copies on Arches paper, including the original color lithograph signed and numbered by Georges Braque.
• Braque (Georges) - Saint-Pol-Roux. Août. Paris, Louis Broder, 1958, in-4 oblong, sheets, under cover, case. First edition decorated with 4 original full-page etchings, including 2 in colors, by Georges Braque. Limited to 120 copies on Auvergne paper signed by Braque.

Les Amies by Verlaine illustrated by Buchet

Les Amies (girl friends), early work in which Verlaine praises sapphic love, known a rather chaotic publication. First edited to 50 copies under the pseudonym of Pablo-Maria de Herlañes, the collection is censored and all the issues are destroyed. The six sonnets are again published, in 1881, in La Revue Indépendante (The Independent Journal) and finally resumed, in 1889, in Parralèlement (text in french here). It is in this collection that are also the six poems Filles (Girls) who address the theme of brothel.

Because of their erotic and sulphurous dimension, Those poems have been illustrated many times (Bonnard, Bécat, Daragnès ...) The contribution of Gustave Buchet is from the Art Deco period. The Swiss painter has flirted with major artistic movements of his time : Dada, Futurism, Cubism then Purism that leads him to abstraction. This is the line which makes the interest of the etchings that Buchet composes for Les Amies and Filles. The harmony of sober colors invites the gaze to land on the forms. The bodies are all in accurate and fine curves. The style is simple, elegant.

Currently, the librairie Loliée offers :

• [Buchet (Gustave)] – Verlaine (Paul). Les Amies. Filles. Treize pointes sèches rehaussées de couleur et cul-de-lampe par Gustave Buchet. Paris, Le Livre, 1913, in-4, binding by Martine Roy. Edition illustrated with 13 hand color-washed etchings.

Debussy - Toulet : a lasting friendship

Paul-Jean Toulet and Claude Debussy met at the Café Weber, rue Royale in Paris. Toulet loved encouters with "my brother the whiskey and my friend the night." Debussy, who was not an easy friend to gain, quickly liked the poet. The two men planned to adapt for the opera As You Like It by Shakeaspeare. Their personal correspondence, first published in 1929, spreads over 16 years and closes up on Debussy's death. The letters testify the affinities that bind the writer and the composer : a love for arts and a taste for hyperbole. The two men speak about their Shakespeare's project that will ultimately not be done, about their social activities and artistic meetings. They are thoughtful to one another without dwelling on their respective diseases. In the last year, it is mainly wifes who discuss the health of their husbands. "Friends, charities, virtuosos, parents took all of us... I saw however a nice and intelligent doctor to make some essential injections to the Master, who is a little depressed ... " Emma Claude Debussy wrote to Madam Toulet.

Debussy died in 1918. Toulet, sick of too much alcohol and opium, succumbed two years later. With his Contrerimes, which are beginning to be published in 1910 and whose final edition will be released in 1921, Toulet is recognized as an important poet and appointed as head of the ecole fantaisiste (The Fantasy School).

Currently, the librairie Loliée offers :

• Toulet (Paul-Jean). Correspondance de Claude Debussy et P.J. Toulet. Paris, Le Divan, 1929, binding by Huser. First Edition. One of the 15 first copies on Japan paper.
  
• Toulet (Paul-Jean) . Les Contrerimes. Paris, Edition du Divan et Emile Paul, 1921, pfull binding by Huser. First edition. One of the first 20 copies on China paper.
  

Ode to New York

"All your muscles are tensed
New York victorious
centuries of smoke
and here before you
as distant lonely clouds
stand your destiny
which is like the hesitation on the edge of a precipice
like gap that separates night of morning
doubt that nothing calms
like fire raising
like silent and hope and madness "
Extract from the book of poems Odes by Philippe Soupault - photo Keystone from the same book

Currently, the librairie Loliée offers :

• Soupault (Philippe). Odes. Paris, Pierre Seghers, 1946, in-4, illustrated cover. First edition with illsutrated with various pictures. Copie on vellum paper.
  
• Soupault (Philippe). Le Grand Homme. Novel. Paris, Charlot, 1947. First edition. Frontispiece by André Masson.