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an old handwritten letter written in french on a piece of paper
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336 - Jean COCTEAU. Signed autograph manuscript, *Zola, the Poet*,…
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Estimate €1,000 - €1,200
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Description
Jean COCTEAU. Signed autograph manuscript, *Zola, the Poet*, [1958]; 4 pages, in-4. A tribute to Émile Zola, read at Médan and published in 1958 in issue no. 11 of *Les Cahiers naturalistes*. ‘Nothing is more enduring or more enduring than a glorious injustice’… Cocteau seeks to rescue Zola from his ‘posthumous glory’ by demonstrating that ‘this great realist was a great poet’. How I would love to plead the case for true realism and say: ‘Realism consists in depicting with accuracy the objects of a world specific to the artist and bearing no relation whatsoever to what we are accustomed to taking for reality’. At once one would see emerging from the wings of a theatre accused of being a sort of transcendence of the Grand-Guignol, a procession of scenes so singular, so lofty, so noble—and so moving—that I find it hard to understand why their marvellousness does not heal the blind and compel them to acknowledge their error. What, is it from this crude Zola, this block of peat, this obscure monster, enemy of all grace, that emerge the white horses from the mine, the locomotive lying dead beneath the snow, the child bleeding on the Épinal prints, the drunken man ablaze, a thousand and a thousand examples of a sophisticated lyricism akin to the naïve lyricism of Fantomas, which enchanted Guillaume Apollinaire and which I believe should always serve as our guide. Poetry defies analysis. Its infectious power expresses itself in spite of obstacles, and, in this exhibition in Brussels from which I have just returned, it triumphs by honouring artists whose works were laughed at by the conformists of 1913. Brancusi, Archipenko, Zadkine and Lipchitz reign there architecturally, after a long wait. And now, in 1958, the tender heroism of Zola’s *J’accuse* is beginning to emerge and to overcome the absurd verdict of the 19th century.”
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About the sale Letters and Autograph Manuscripts – Part II
Auction location
Auction time 10/14/2026 at 2:00 PM
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
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