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48 - Robert DESNOS. *Contrée*. Etching by Picasso.
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Estimate €1,500 - €2,000
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Description
Robert DESNOS. *Contrée*. Etching by Picasso. Paris, Robert J. Godet, 1944. Large 8vo, paperback, padded cover, modern brown paper slipcase. First edition: illustrated with a Picasso etching on a loose-leaf insert. Printed in a run of 213 copies, including three for contributors: one of the 200 on Lafuma pure-fibre vellum (no. 192). Desnos met the publisher Robert J. Godet through the latter’s wife, Elisabeth, known as Babette, who worked at the same newspaper as the poet, *Aujourd’hui*. (It is well known how much he was criticised for this association, as *Aujourd’hui* was a collaborationist publication.) It was in fact this meeting with Desnos that prompted Godet to go into publishing. “He was just twenty years old and had a love of books. He published twelve titles during the Occupation, including two collections by Desnos, *État de veille* in 1943 and *Contrée* in 1944. The collection was called ‘Pour mes amis’” (Anne Egger). “Contrée is dedicated ‘to Youki’, who had been the poet’s partner since 1930. […] In the final poem, L’épitaphe, the poet proclaims: ‘You who are alive, fear nothing from me, for I am dead. / Nothing survives of my mind or my body.’ A sad omen, for, in fact, the Gestapo arrested Desnos on 22 February 1944, even before the book was published, and he died in deportation fifteen months later” (Goeppert). A fine copy, as published. (Egger, Robert Desnos, p. 889.— Goeppert & Cramer, Pablo Picasso, catalogue raisonné of illustrated books, no. 39.- Imbert, Robert J. Godet, Publisher of Bataille, Michaux and Desnos, 2000, no. 12.—Johnson, Artists’ Books in the Modern Era, 1870–2000, no. 68.)
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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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