GAUGUIN (Paul) and Charles MORICE. - Lot 14

Lot 14
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Result : 1 950EUR
GAUGUIN (Paul) and Charles MORICE. - Lot 14
GAUGUIN (Paul) and Charles MORICE. Noa Noa. Berlin, Marées-Gesellschaft, 1926. In-folio, 210 pp. of which 4 blank, i.e. 204 pp. with 6 pp. figured doubled or not figured, buff chagrin, smooth spine with gilt title, gilt fillet framing the boards, gilt head; binding a little rubbed (publisher's binding); volume set in a modern blond leather-backed slipcase. FIRST FACSIMILE EDITION. The text of Noa Noa was first published without illustration, in excerpts in Revue blanche (1897) and L'Action humaine (1900), then in its entirety by Éditions de La Plume (1901). The first illustrated edition, published in 1924 by Georges Crès, was in fact accompanied by woodcuts by Georges-Daniel de Monfreid based on original illustrations by Paul Gauguin. ONE OF THE MASTERPIECES OF THE MAREES-GESELLSCHAFT. This magnificent work reproduces Paul Gauguin's illustrated manuscript using chromophototyping, a mixed technique combining mechanical and manual processes, to achieve previously unattained fidelity. Founded in 1917 by art historian and critic Julius Meier-Graefe and Munich publisher Reinhard Piper, the Marées-Gesellschaft published a series of deluxe facsimiles until 1929, with the aim of disseminating treasures of ancient and contemporary drawing, and thus contributing to European concord by helping to revive a Franco-German aesthetic dialogue. Julius Meier-Graefe, who emigrated in 1930, was later accused by the Nazis of promoting degenerate art. ONE OF THE MOST EXTRAORDINARY ILLUSTRIOUS PAINTER'S MANUSCRIPTS. Although Paul Gauguin conceived the idea of keeping a diary of his travel impressions as soon as he arrived in Tahiti in 1891, he didn't draft it until 1893, during a brief return to Europe, but in a broader perspective: what he entitled Noa Noa ("perfumed" in Tahitian) offers an initiatory account of his personal acculturation to Polynesian civilization, as well as an explanatory text for his painting, which at the time incorporated large swathes of this culture. To this end, he enlisted the help of writer Charles Morice, who wrote verses offering a poetic counterpoint to his prose text. From the outset, Paul Gauguin's idea had been to include illustrations in a book to be read and seen, and he took care of this during his second stay in Oceania, adding watercolors and woodcuts. The volume of Noa Noa was found at his death in his hut in the Marquesas: marine doctor and writer Victor Segalen, who was present at the time, acquired it at the artist's after-death sale, and gave it to painter Georges-Daniel de Monfreid, a friend of both men. The latter then donated it to the French state, and the manuscript is now housed at the Musée d'Orsay.
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