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220 - Henri MICHAUX. Correspondence with Jacques Olivier and Georg…
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Estimate €20,000 - €25,000
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Henri MICHAUX. Correspondence with Jacques Olivier and Georgette Fourcade. 1929–1947. 52 signed autograph letters, notes and cards, 48 pages in-8 or in-12, 18 envelopes. Exceptional, previously unpublished correspondence with his closest friend, confidant and publisher, Jacques-Olivier Fourcade (1901–1966), and his wife Georgette. The correspondence addressed to the man whom Michaux affectionately nicknamed ‘Old Jack’, ‘Old Man’, ‘my old friend’ or ‘dear old pipe’ provides a particularly moving account of this special friendship. Take, for instance, this letter written from Belgium on 23 July 1935: I’m the only one crying. If this is my country! And yet I sought out the one village where they speak German! Always the sort of thing one isn’t meant to understand. Cheap – obviously. But you have to get drunk to put up with the country, so… Write to me. I need you to write to me. Anything at all, naturally. I get the jitters when I think I might no longer be living in France. And living amongst these narrow-minded folk. Several letters from the early 1930s allow us to follow Michaux on his travels around the world – from Spain to the Far East, to India, the Canary Islands, Portugal and Africa. His impressions are conveyed in a telegraphic, even elliptical style, yet not without humour, as in this postcard sent from Canton in April 1932 (reproduced in the BnF exhibition catalogue, p. 25): Dear Fohá: China – impossible to see anything, and yet… But Chinese women are the wonders of the universe. Awaiting your news and a letter of recommendation (to the Belgian Consulate in Tokyo) for Japan. And the cinema? I write, I write… and am reborn. Will only return to France for a short while. I want to live in the United States or England. I no longer understand French. Please write to me – I beg you. Best wishes to Georgette. If you’re too lazy, tell Georgette to write to me – Yours, Henri The correspondence frequently mentions the Fourcade family home in Meudon. He invites himself there for the first time since the Perey 5 residence in the Cité du Rétiro via a postcard: ‘Have your children in Germany. They’re the most beautiful.’ But I haven’t been able to go to Germany and have no need for children. Rather, I need a bit of rest here, as I cannot get away from Paris. Didn’t you once, in the year X, suggest that I come and spend a few days in Meudon whilst you were away? Rake your memory… and besides, you’re quite capable of it. All I’d need is to be able to go there sometimes in the afternoon, to do a bit of drawing (pastels, if I can find them) and, above all, to do nothing at all – which is what I need. Do any other spirits besides yours dwell there? Would we disturb them? From the summer of 1937 onwards, Meudon became a refuge and a place of creativity for Michaux. He stayed there in a garage converted into a studio, where he drew, wrote and played the piano. He settled there in particular upon his return from Brazil in early 1940. As his friend had been called up, his letters were then addressed to Georgette: It seems this is not yet the season for happy returns. Meudon has lost its masters and the garden is a desolate sight. The garage looked less forbidding, but nothing comes out of it—no water, no gas, no heat—and there is no light. In the evening, I sit by candlelight in a rather unwelcoming cold. The day after tomorrow, the gas men—once they’ve been paid—will, it seems, be kind enough to fill the pipes with their supply, and I’m waiting for the electricity (9 February 1940). Or when spring arrives: S, I’m staying in Meudon. Whatever people may say, being close to Paris is something. In any case, despite the dreadful news – which, of course, everyone is receiving – I feel ten times better here than I did before. Flowers in the garden (those yellow-flowered shrubs at the front, in full bloom), the rose bushes and lilacs that promise to be magnificent. In May 1940, Michaux would join his future wife Marie-Louise in Tarn-et-Garonne after having “seen Jacques for only a few hours. He was tired and I was devastated by the Belgian King’s surrender. We’d missed him!’ He left Meudon, not without hope of seeing his friends there again by the end of July. The poet would regularly enquire after Jacques and Monique and Maurice, their two children, and would ask Georgette for help whilst preparing for an exhibition at the Galerie de l’Abbaye on 12 May 1942: The time to return is drawing near. My exhibition opens on 12 June, when I shall inspect your plantations. All that’s missing are frames for the paintings. However, there are some in the garage that are just gathering dust or rotting away. I suppose you go to Paris from time to time. Would you mind taking some to the Galerie de l’Abbaye, 16 Rue de l’Abbaye (that is to say, Place Saint-Germain-des-Prés)? They’re needed to frame watercolours in my usual size of 25 cm by 32.5. And I’d need as many as possible, as there are seventeen missing. Please bring as many as you can in white or gilded wood, as well as canvas or other material frames. It’s incredibly urgent, as otherwise we’ll end up doing something silly instead. I shall reimburse you for taxis and expenses. If, unfortunately, you are unable to bring them yourself or have them delivered to the gallery director, please telephone Mr Henri Parisot Vaugirard 9970 immediately – he lives at 140 Avenue d’Orléans in Paris – and urge him (though he is a teacher and very busy) to come and collect them. Please write me a quick note straight away to let me know that you have received this card. A few letters from the immediate post-war period date from the Michaux couple’s stays in Chamonix and Egypt, shortly before Marie-Louise’s tragic death in February 1948. Enclosed: - Jean PAULHAN. Autograph signed letter to Jacques Fourcade with an envelope postmarked 23 January 1946: ‘Well, G.G. strikes me as very cold, not at all decisive (this, I beg you, is just between us; he regards H. as a rather unreliable sort, prone to whims).’ I’ve done what I could. -Jean de BOSCHÈRE. Autograph signed postcard to Jacques Fourcade. La Châtre, 23 May 1952. Regarding the anthology *Jean de Boschère l’admirable* published by Fourcade.
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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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