Photo 1/1 du lot
Premium ROUILLAC

503 - Marie Vassilieff (Franco-Russian, 1884-1957) 20th Century Bo…
See original version (French)

Estimate €1,500 - €2,000
Sale commission
Description
Marie Vassilieff (Franco-Russian, 1884-1957) 20th Century Bohemia - Memoirs by Marie Vassielieff Complete typescript typescript with a few corrections and additions by several hands, including the artist. 225 pp. in-4 + 3 pages in-8 handwritten by Marie Vassilief. Provenance: Claude Bernès collection (1941-2025) These memoirs are a publishing "Arlesienne". From 1929 to 1953, Marie Vassilieff searched relentlessly for a publisher. Gallimard, Albin Michel, English and American publishers all recognised the interest of the manuscript, but no one decided to publish it. Two copies entrusted to Jean Cocteau and the publisher Jacques Damase mysteriously disappeared. An American project went unheeded. The typescript presented here is the definitive version of the memoirs, including both parts, written after 1945. On the first page, above the title, a pencil apostille in the artist's hand indicates his address: "Marie Vassilieff, 19 bis rue Boulainvilliers, 16e", the flat left to him by his son Pierre between 1948 and 1953. Inserted between pages 164 and 165, three handwritten in-8 pages recount the lie invented to conceal from Pierre the identity of his biological father. This deeply intimate passage is absent from all other known versions. Only one complete typescript is known to exist: in the Bibliothèque historique de la Ville de Paris. The second, published in 2018 by Paradox, is missing dozens of pages. This is the second complete copy to be made public, and the only one to contain these autograph additions.
See original version (French)
Auto-translation. Refer to original language for legal validity.
About the sale MARIE VASSILIEFF - THE GOLDEN AGE OF MONTPARNASSE
Auction location
Auction time 06/08/2026 at 2:00 PM
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
You may also like