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22 - Blaise CENDRARS. *The End of the World Filmed by the Angel o…
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Estimate €3,000 - €4,000
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Description
Blaise CENDRARS. *The End of the World Filmed by the Angel of Our Lady*. Novel. Colour illustrations by Fernand Léger. Paris, Éditions de La Sirène, 1919. Large quarto, tab-bound, black morocco, plain, unmarked spine, title in paper letters of various colours on the covers, illustrated covers and spine preserved, black cloth slipcase (Devauchelle). First edition. Limited edition of 1,225 copies (no. 53). 22 large-scale compositions by Fernand Léger, 20 of which were stencil-coloured in Richard’s studios. One of the finest artists’ books of the 20th century: Fernand Léger’s illustrations, oscillating between figuration, abstraction and typographic ornamentation, are a veritable feast for the eyes. This is the second book illustrated by Léger; his work in print would not begin until the following year. “The strong primary colours used by Léger were achieved by directly applying watercolour using the stencil method. A message of modernity is evident on every page of this bibliophilic masterpiece” (Robert Flynn Johnson). A fine copy in black morocco leather decorated by Devauchelle, bound with tabs. (Johnson, *Artists’ Books in the Modern Era, 1870–2000*, no. 26; Peyré, *Peinture et Poésie*, no. 18; Castleman, *A Century of Artists’ Books*, 1994, pp. 170–171: “Cendrars’s twentieth-century satire *La Fin du Monde* is organised like a film script and given a dizzying pictorial setting by Léger. By compressing space in the Cubist manner, Léger evokes a sense of simultaneity through overlapping and repetitive geometric and alphabetic forms.”)
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About the sale Henri Michaux, the Sven Pitsey collection
Auction location
Auction time 10/29/2026 at 2:00 PM
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
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