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Folk Art

Beauté de l'imagerie populaire

Taken as a whole, a collection always has a certain homogeneity. This one is no exception to the rule. Its homogeneity is biographical, if you will, shedding light on the life of André Breton-who used the "population curve" to illustrate a passage from "Nadja", then in the same way used the "peasant spoon" to illustrate passages from "L'Amour fou ". An impenetrable 17th century gouache, "La huitième clé de Basile Valentin", and walking sticks, and then the crystal ball of the clairvoyant, illustrating "l'Art Magique."

The small collection of walking sticks is chosen with obvious discernment. A group of almost a hundred stoups, of folk workmanship principally from the southwest, was located with a certain sense of appropriateness in the shower room. Several dozen holy wafer moulds and extremely old waffle irons speak to us of fire and bread. A netsuke in bone shows a skull surmounted by a snake; a "crossroads god" from the Aveyron in red clay evokes Gallic art; the shell of a pangolin, as well as a group of Mexican statuettes, the world of the exotic; a stone "two lovers" console table, the medieval period; a small book cabinet in the form of an Alsatian house, Alsace. Also in the collection, a piece of a Kilim, folk art prints, fossilized sea urchins, a chest from the Alps, a collection of moulded bottles, cabalistic charms, a frog snuffbox, butterflies, a tortoise shell, the famous Musidora poster, smoothed stones and wooden anthropomorphic carvings, as well as various smaller objects.

"That you are thinking of letting the larger public benefit from the knowledge and pleasures that your uninterrupted and impassioned quest for folk art has brought to you, is news which brings even more joy to my heart than to my mind. For my part, I am indebted to you for enabling me to better orient myself in the profusion of works which can be grouped under the banner of Folk art, its objects, as we have so often agreed, the equals-at the very least-of all sorts of individual works signed by more or less illustrious names and created in a more ambitious spirit. Nothing is comparable-in the sense of that "intake of air" I have always advocated-to the effect which a number of them produce in me, precisely those which you picked out at once. Care needs to be taken: you needed all the qualities which I appreciate in you and which, by who knows what path, seem to me derive from the very qualities that we imagine in some aged illuminator or wood carver, from the maker of such functional-or other-objects (from spoon to toy) to the village potter-glazer, each object must be the product of a single person; by this I mean someone inventing his own craft while nevertheless remaining true to tradition. You revealed to me in particular the beauty of Folk imagery, its marvellous ups and downs clinging closely to those of history; you unwound before my eyes the subtle thread which-to speak only of it but which goes much further-the warp and weave of a France which goes from Chartres to Orléans, from Paris to Beauvais, from Nantes to Quimper, from Lille to Caen, unwinding from Toulouse to Epinal. All that we know of our own country-the blues, the pinks, the greens-shift slightly at the image of a sound emanating from the curvature of our rivers: what more precious reference is there? I attest to the fact that you are the most apt of men I know to be capable of making it be felt, here as well as far away. I shake both your hands

André Breton"

(Letter from André Breton to Edmond Bomsel, co-editor of Sagittaire and long-time friend; from 1956, an extract from the Archives Bomsel published in: André Breton, La beauté convulsive, Musée Nationale d'Art Moderne / Centre Georges Pompidou, Ed. du Centre Pompidou, Paris 1991, p. 417)

The descriptions in this category were established in 2003 by the expert, Henri-Claude Randier. They can be modified by the wiki and your commentary. Your additions are moderated.

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312 Works
 
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Deux jeux de cartes

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Deux jeux de cartes, l'un allemand, l'autre suisse, datant du tournant du 20e siècle.
Pas d'image, une notice descriptive, une bibliothèque, une bibliographie, une exposition, un musée.

False

Ex-voto (?), 3 femmes

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Pierre sculptée placée le long du mur de l'atelier d'André Breton.

False

Quatre pipes

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Ensemble de quatre pipes placées sur le bureau d'André Breton.
Pas d'image, une notice descriptive, une bibliothèque, une exposition, un musée.

False

Cinq paquets de tabac

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Cinq paquets de tabac à pipes dont l'un annoté d'une écriture manuscrite.
Pas d'image, une notice descriptive, une bibliothèque, une exposition, un musée.

False

Agrafeuse

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Agrafeuse de marque Jakyneuf ornée d'une étoile.
Pas d'image, une notice descriptive, une bibliothèque, une exposition, un musée.

False

American Crescent Cycles

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Frederick Winthrop Ramsdell

Affiche publicitaire de Frederick Winthrop Ramsdell.
Pas d'image, une notice descriptive.

False

L'Assomption de la Sainte Vierge

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Inconnu

Estampe, image de Chartres, fin 18e siècle.
Une image, une description à compléter.

False

Bague à décor religieux

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Bague en forme de chapelle décorée, 19e siècle.
Une image, une description à compléter

False

Baguette en bois

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Baguette en bois, 19e siècle. Une image, une description à compléter.

False

Bâton de berger

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Objet placé contre le mur de l'atelier d'André Breton.

False

Bénitier à dosseret contourné

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Bénitier bleu et rouge avec christ en relief, 19e siècle.
Une image, une description à compléter.

[Fonts] fonts St-Cirq

False

Bénitier à dosseret contouné

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Bénitier avec christ en relief, 18e siècle.
Une image, une description à compléter.

[Fonts] fonts St-Cirq

False

Bénitier à dosseret contourné

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Bénitier avec christ en relief, 18e siècle.
Une image, une description à compléter.

[Fonts] fonts St-Cirq

False

Bénitier à dosseret contourné

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Bénitier avec christ en relief, 18e siècle.
Une image, une description à compléter.

[Fonts] fonts St-Cirq

False

Bénitier à dosseret contourné

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Bénitier avec christ en relief, 18e siècle.
Une image, une description à compléter.

[Fonts] fonts St-Cirq

False

Bénitier à dosseret contourné

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Bénitier avec architecture gothique et croix, 19e siècle.
Une image, une description à compléter.

[Fonts] fonts St-Cirq

False

Bénitier à dosseret contourné

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Bénitier avec architecture gothique et croix, 19e siècle.
Une image, une description à compléter.

[Fonts] fonts St-Cirq

False

Bénitier à dosseret contouné

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Bénitier avec architecture gothique et croix, 19e siècle.
Une image, une description à compléter.

[Fonts] fonts St-Cirq

False

Bénitier à dosseret contouné

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Bénitier avec architecture gothique et croix, 19e siècle.
Une image, une description à compléter.

[Fonts] fonts St-Cirq