Sothebys : (English) A poignant account of Arthur Rimbaud's last weeks | The Library of R. & B. L. | Sotheby's & Binoche et Giquello, Paris, 9 October

Press release Paris

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A POIGNANT ACCOUNT OF ARTHUR RIMBAUD'S LAST WEEKS An extraordinary letter to his sister, one of his last to his family

AN ICONIC COPY OF LES CHANTS DE MALDOROR BY LAUTRÉAMONT

UNPUBLISHED DRAWINGS BY PAUL VERLAINE

Paul Verlaine, Poème Saturnien, 1885

THE LIBRARY OF R. & B. L.

RARE 19TH-CENTURY FIRST COPIES AND LETTERS FROM LITERARY GREATS

(1840-1898)

Registration no. 2001 - 002 of 25 October 2001 Sale conducted by Cyrille Cohen and Alexandre Giquello

Paris, 25 September 2018: On 9 October, Sotheby's, in association with Binoche and Giquello, will present the next chapter of the remarkable R. and B. L. Library at auction in Paris. This final chapter features a series of first editions, including some in large paper and some inscribed. Several of these lots have a magnificent literary or sentimental provenance.

In 2019, an important set of manuscripts -letters of painters, musicians and writers - from the R. & B. L. collection will also be offered at auction.

The lots belong to the core of the R. & B. L. collection and include several iconic works, which is why these bibliophiles chose to sell them last. First copies, autograph poems and rare drawings combine to form a constellation of authors and artists who knew and worked with each other, including such literary greats as Rimbaud and Verlaine; Mallarmé, Manet and Gauguin; Flaubert and Baudelaire. All of the works in this rare, charming and unique ensemble attest to their phenomenal genius, kinship and complicity.

On this occasion, the expert Dominique Courvoisier will team up with Sotheby's specialists Anne Heilbronn and Benoît Puttemans. The auction will be held in Galerie Charpentier under the shared hammers of the two auction houses.

A moving letter of Arthur Rimbaud's last weeks

In his extraordinary letter to his sister Isabelle, dated 10 July 1891, the poet Arthur Rimbaud provides what is probably the finest account of his last weeks. This heart-wrenching testament features some particularly tragic passages, in which the poet expressed himself in eloquent terms (Lot 241 - Estimate: €80,000 - €100,000).

Rimbaud included three drawings in his letter: of his wooden leg, his two crutches and a model of his artificial leg. His right leg had been amputated in Marseille, to remove a tumour on his knee, the harbinger of the disease to which he succumbed. There, his condition failed to improve. The immobilised poet is overcome a tidal wave of bitterness and nostalgia as he remembers his old

life. "How tedious, how tiresome, you cannot imagine the sorrow I feel as I think of my travels and how active I was only five months ago! Where are the paths across mountains, the cavalcades, the walks, the deserts, rivers and seas?

And now I am reduced to a legless existence!

And yet it is apparent that Rimbaud is consumed by a desire to live, because "although Man's

existence may be foolish, he is still attached to it". The poet even confides to his sister that he had returned to France to marry, immediately adding "Goodbye marriage, goodbye family, and future!

My life is over, I am nothing more than an immobile lump," using an astonishing metaphor that is reminiscent of what is probably one of the most beautiful passages in his Une saison en enfer.

This crucial letter spells out the last act of the poet's life, foreshadowing, with sinister precision, the final drama that led up to his death on 10 November.

Nerval - Verlaine

Several of the autographs in this auction reveal more about these authors' lives, friendships and misfortunes, such as the extraordinary relic of Gérard de Nerval's tragic last moments, namely a fragment from Chapter IV of the second volume of his work Aurélia (Lot 210 - Estimate: €20,000 - €30,000 €). The manuscript was apparently found in the pocket of the poet's coat, after he hung himself rue de la Vieille-Lanterne, on the morning of 26 January 1855. It ends with the following prophetic

words: "What would happen if I were to suddenly die?"

Aurelia, which the poet wrote towards the end of his life, is his lucid and anguished attempt to prevent his madness from having the upper hand. It is therefore no surprise that Jacques Lacan once owned this work. Nerval wrote this fragment (the full manuscript was never found) during his two stays in Doctor Blanche's clinic at Passy, in 1853 and 1854, respectively. He insisted on the therapeutic value of dreams, regarding them as an instrument to explore the unknown and life itself. That is why he attempted to break on through the "doors of

ivory or horn which separate us from the invisible world", influencing the Surrealist movement in the process. By carrying this manuscript and these last lines with him everywhere he went, Nerval made a desperate final attempt to cross into the realm of dreams.

Another equally tragic text, albeit more humoristic in tone, is Paul Verlaine's Poème Saturnien, composed in 1885 and illustrated with pen drawings (Lot 274 - Estimate: €12,000 - €15,000).

In it Verlaine refers to a brawl in which he became embroiled upon exiting an inn in late May 1885. The first drawing, above the poem, illustrates the first two stanzas, and represents a singer facing an audience. Verlaine is seated to the left, with his hat and pipe, with Rimbaud at the rear left, with his hat, tie and cigarette. Rimbaud's presence elucidates the poem. Although the poet seems to adopt a rather cavalier attitude to his misadventures, in reality the tone is much more nostalgic, even though the lovers had gone their separate ways ten years earlier.

While he was hospitalised in 1887, Verlaine wrote a new poem about Rimbaud [Læti et errabundi], after hearing a rumour about the death of the man he had loved so passionately. Shocked, he composed this long, 100-verse poem, in which he relives their ardent love affair while refusing to believe that the love of his life had died. The experts had no knowledge of this remarkable manuscript (Lot 280 - Estimate: €25,000 - €35,000).

Lautréamont - Mallarmé - Flaubert

This copy of Lautréamont's Les Chants de Maldoror, first edition, dated 1869, is extremely rare for several reasons (Lot 128 - Estimate: €100,000 - €150,000).

In a sense, it is a bit of a black swan, because it is so rare and one of the most splendid objects a book lover could possibly dream of owning. There are fewer than ten extant copies of this edition, including this one, which was published in 1869.

The myth is compounded by the enigmatic personality of the book's author. Very little is known about Isidore Ducasse, who published the songs under the pen name of Comte de Lautréamont. He wrote Les Chants in 1867 and enquired with the Brussels publisher Albert Lacroix in 1869 whether he would be interested in publishing them. Lacroix refused, however, shocked by the intensely negative and bitter tone and the dark descriptions of human life. The lot at auction is a first edition.

This first copy L'Après-Midi d'un faune by of Stéphane Mallarmé is equally extraordinary. One of the first painter's books, it is widely regarded as a symbolist masterpiece (Lot 139 - Estimate €30,000 - €40,000). Mallarmé, who was a poet, a translator and an art critic, befriended many of the intellectuals and artists of his era, including Édouard Manet, who created the illustrations for this copy or Paul Gauguin, to whom this magnificent work was dedicated:

« Au sauvage et bibliophile

Son ami

Stéphane Mallarmé »

Mallarmé and Gauguin held each other in high esteem. The former helped the latter raise the funds he needed for his trip to Tahiti, meeting with Gauguin again in November 1893 at the exhibition of his works at Durand-Ruel. After the exhibition, Gauguin gave him a figurine he sculpted during his first trip to Tahiti, as a token of appreciation. He symbolically named it L'Après-midi d'un faune.

Gauguin took this copy, which Mallarmé inscribed to him, to the Marquesas Islands in 1895 and it stayed with him until he died. The lot includes a remarkable portrait of Mallarmé by Gauguin, believed to be the only existing copper-plate print by the painter. It represents Mallarmé with Edgar Allan Poe's The Raven.

Mallarmé, who greatly admired Edgar Allan Poe, had translated this poem. The auction also includes an original French copy of Le Corbeau (Lot 138 - Estimate: €30,000 - €40,000), which is illustrated with six striking inkdrawings by Manet that depict some of the key events in the poem.

Another work by Stéphane Mallarmé is a very rare autograph manuscript of his Tombeau d'Edgar Poe (Lot 152 - Estimate: €60,000 - €80,000 €). This is one of the poet's best-known poems, painting a portrait of the author and linking their two names for posterity. The poem is dedicated to Edmund Gosse, an English literary critic who greatly admired Mallarmé's work.

The auction also features one of the 25 copies on Holland paper of the extremely rare first edition of Gustave Flaubert's Salammbô (Lot 81 - Estimate: €30,000 - €40,000). Théophile Gautier owned this precious book, inscribed by the author on the half-title:

à mon très cher maître Théophile Gautier

son vieux

Gustave Flaubert

To Théophile Gautier, Salammbô was "a splendid and monumental work". In an article in Le Moniteur Officiel, he even claimed that "reading Salammbô was one of the most violent intellectual sensations one might ever have the pleasure of experiencing" and saluted Flaubert as a "a painter of ancient battles, who has never been equalled and will never be surpassed". The selection also includes a very rare copy on Holland paper of his L'Education Sentimentale (Lot 84 - Estimate: €35,000 - €45,000 €), which he inscribed to the critic Jules Janin.

Flaubert also puts in an appearance as a literary critic in this auction, in an enthusiastic signed autograph letter to Charles Baudelaire (Lot 75 - Estimate: €12,000 - €15,000 €) in which he confides to the author that he "devoured [his] book from start to end".

Bibliothèque R. & B. L.

Éditions originales et autographes du XIXe siècle (1840-1898)

Auction: 9 October

Exhibition: 5, 6 and 8 October

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*Estimates do not include the buyer's premium. Prices consist of the hammer price and the buyer's premium and do not include fees to be paid to the buyer in the event of an irrevocable bid.

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