PICASSO (Pablo) - DESNOS (Robert). - Lot 262

PICASSO (Pablo) - DESNOS (Robert). Contrée. Paris: Robert-J. Godet, 1944. - In-4, 280x190: frontispiece, 57 pp, (3 ff. last blank), printed cover. Paperback, lined cover. Cramer, n°39. First edition of this collection of militant poems dedicated to Youki. It is illustrated with an original etching by Pablo PICASSO (1881-1973) in the frontispiece, signed and dated in the plate. Details of this etching are reproduced at the end of 23 of the 25 poems in the collection. Executed on December 23, 1943, this etching shows "a seated figure, represented both frontally and from behind, or, more likely, when we compare the pages of that month's notebook, an embracing couple. The style is a combination of cubist and surrealist devices; the filigree line serves to increase the volume of the body" (Cramer). This is the only work by Desnos illustrated by Picasso. Unfortunately, the author was unable to take advantage of it, as the Gestapo arrested him on February 22, 1944, before the book was published; he died in deportation fifteen months later. The print run was limited to 213 copies. This is one of 200 on vellum pur fil Lafuma.