Description

Dessin automatique à l'encre d'André Masson réalisé en 1925.

Non signé.

Daté au verso, à l'encre, sous un morceau de papier marouflé : « le 9 avril 1925/ Nuit Blanche. »

Filigrane décoratif dans le coin supérieur gauche. Le titre est écrit sur un morceau de papier collé sur une autre inscription. L'inscription originale est visible à travers la feuille : « le 9 avril 1925/ Nuit Blanche. » [MoMA, site André Breton 2019]

 

Bibliography

Agnès de La Beaumelle, Isabelle Monod-Fontaine et Claude Schweisguth, André Breton : la beauté convulsive : [exposition, 25 avril-26 août 1991], Paris, Éditions du Centre Pompidou, 1991, ill. rep. p. 249.

Creation date	1925
Physical description	Encre noire à la plume sur du papier. 16 5/8 x 12 1/2" (42.2 x 31.8 cm)
From / Provenance	Don (?) de l'artiste à André Breton ; collection de Simone Kahn-Collinet (jusqu'en 1935)
Museum	Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York : Inv. 257.1935
Size	42,20 x 31,80 cm
Illustrations	Encre noire à la plume sur du papier
Copyright	© 2019 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris
Keywords	Abstract Art, Automatic Writing
Categories	Graphics
Exhibition	André Breton, La Beauté convulsive
Permanent link	https://www.andrebreton.fr/en/work/56600101000385

Description

Undated sleeping fit, probably by Benjamin Péret, made up of three pages.

Over three pages, and no doubt hardly more than a few minutes, here is a striking illustration of the power of sleeping fits, notably their ability to provoke ruptures –ruptures of social behaviour, such as those outbursts of laughter of Bergsonian memories, or that extravagant image, witnessed by the person transcribing it, of Péret swimming on the table (this scene is related in Les Pas perdus, at the end of ‘Entrée des médiums’); but also ruptures in tone, with this hilarity being followed by a sudden eruption of mortal fear, ending in a fully-fledged malediction: ‘You don’t know what would happen if I died. It would be a disaster for you all. My spell is cast.’ Here Péret, who would be the most faithful to Breton of all the first generation of surrealists, confesses his fear of being excluded, of no longer belonging to the group: the fear of death is shadowed by a fear of being alone. Finally, from the mortuary ‘candelabras’, Péret ends up with automobiles, by a play on the words ‘allumer’ (‘to light up’) and ‘mobility’, an automobile of the mind in the waking dream.

- 2 in-4° pages on headed notepaper for the Congrès de Paris:
‘Why are you il? – because I have tuberculosis…” 
- 1 in-12 page on headed notepaper for the journal Aventure.

 

Translated by Krzysztof Fijalkowski

Creation date	1922
Date of publication	1922
Languages	French
Physical description	Ms - encre et crayon noirs
Library	Bibliothèque littéraire Jacques Doucet, Paris : BRT 161
Method of acquisition and collection	Bibliothèque littéraire Jacques Doucet, Paris, don Aube et Oona Elléouët
Reference	10000
Breton Auction, 2003	Lot 2026
Keywords	Work notes, Psychoanalysis, Dream, Automatic Writing
Categories	Manuscripts, Andre Breton's Manuscripts, Surrealists Manuscripts
Set	[Manuscripts] Sommeils
Permanent link	https://www.andrebreton.fr/en/work/56600100616000

Description

Manuscrit au crayon classé parmi des « Documents Crevel et Péret » par André Breton et symptomatique des Sommeils.

« Pas d'argent ». Le rêve éveillé flirte ici avec la description naturaliste, jusque dans les phrases prononcées : « Mon frère je vais lui f[outre] un coup de poing dans la gueule. Ah je crois que je me fous de tout en ce moment. » Classé par Breton dans le dossier « Documents Crevel et Péret », le texte est pourtant sans nul doute un « sommeil », mais de ceux qui se rapprochent le plus de l'état de veille, avec tout ce qu'il a de prosaïque. On pense ici aux vitesses variables de l'écriture automatique expérimentée en 1919 dans Les Champs magnétiques, qui permettait de s'évader plus ou moins radicalement de la réalité et de ses censures.

1 page in-8° d'un texte au crayon noir :
« Peut pas dormir, a marché, mon frère je vais lui foutre un coup de poing dans la gueule. »

Creation date	1922
Date of publication	1922
Languages	French
Physical description	Ms - crayon noir
Library	Bibliothèque littéraire Jacques Doucet, Paris : BRT 161
Method of acquisition and collection	Bibliothèque littéraire Jacques Doucet, Paris, don Aube et Oona Elléouët
Reference	11000
Breton Auction, 2003	Lot 2026
Keywords	Work notes, Psychoanalysis, Dream, Automatic Writing
Categories	Manuscripts, Surrealists Manuscripts
Set	[Manuscripts] Sommeils
Permanent link	https://www.andrebreton.fr/en/work/56600100409570

Description

Four pages of texts, one of which is illustrated with pencil portraits, dating from late 1922. These seem to be haphazardly made up of drawings (one of them could represent Breton, recognisable by his hairstyle), a few pages of questions put to a ‘sleeper’ (returning to the ever disappointing questions about friends: "Morise? - No, I don't know him"), and finally a little worksheet on the partial spoonerism Poli honnête/poète honni [Honest Poli/ Honoured Poet]. Pages of notebooks, testifying to the daily life of an honest poet in his search for images, the ‘sleeping fit’ delivering a very beautiful one here, the phrase "jelly of odours" conveying the importance of sensation, as Breton has often pointed out. Surrealism is not only a spiritual matter; in the struggle against reason and bourgeois morality, the body reasserts its rights. 4 pages in-4° of texts, one of which is illustrated with small black pencil drawings by Breton representing three faces in profile: "I know a second planet with a woman's name...".

Creation date	1922
Date of publication	1922
Languages	French
Physical description	Ms et Ds - crayons noir et bleu,3 Ds
Library	Bibliothèque littéraire Jacques Doucet, Paris : BRT 161
Method of acquisition and collection	Bibliothèque littéraire Jacques Doucet, Paris, don Aube et Oona Elléouët
Reference	12000
Breton Auction, 2003	Lot 2026
Keywords	Graphic Arts, Work notes, Psychoanalysis, Dream, Automatic Writing
Categories	Manuscripts, Surrealists Manuscripts
Set	[Manuscripts] Sommeils
Permanent link	https://www.andrebreton.fr/en/work/56600100090590

Description

Seven-page manuscript of an active sleeping fit by Desnos, Péret or Crevel, dated 1922. An extreme agitation, evidenced by the speed of the pencil running over the paper to leave only a barely legible scrawl; emerging here and there are the themes of combat, and of what seems to be boxing ("I beat Carpenter"). The dreamer - Desnos, Péret, Crevel - seems to be in the grip of a disorder that echoes in Breton's remarks in 1952: "the ‘sleeping fits’ [...] encouraged in certain sleeping subjects an impulsive activity from which one could fear the worst.” He recalls a session at the home of Mme de La Hire, a friend of Picabia, where several sleeping people tried to hang themselves; or an evening when "several of us had to restrain the sleeping Desnos who, brandishing a knife, was chasing Éluard around the garden." (Entretiens, 1952). 7 pages in-4° in black pencil on Office français des Intérêts féminins [French Office for Women's Interests] letterheaded paper: "It's the negroes who caught them... That's it, they fight all the time. Some are on the ground, others are climbing on top... Like Cravan, he was a boxer..."

Creation date	1923
Date of publication	1922
Languages	French
Physical description	Ms - crayon noir
Library	Bibliothèque littéraire Jacques Doucet, Paris : BRT 161
Method of acquisition and collection	Bibliothèque littéraire Jacques Doucet, Paris, don Aube et Oona Elléouët
Reference	14000
Breton Auction, 2003	Lot 2026
Keywords	Work notes, Psychoanalysis, Dream, Automatic Writing
Categories	Manuscripts, Surrealists Manuscripts
Set	[Manuscripts] Sommeils
Permanent link	https://www.andrebreton.fr/en/work/56600100024930

Description

Handwritten fragments and drawings from Desnos' sleeping fits, dating from 1922. "Alarm and caprice where the winds die and all the currents maintained who surrender.” In these fragments by Desnos, something emerges that can unhesitatingly said to be poetic, if only because of the scansion that gives rhythm to the sentences. The figure of Marcel Duchamp, whose portrait and name appear at the end of this collection, suggests that of Rrose Sélavy, who is emerging and who will ‘dictate’ to Desnos some dazzling works that captivated Breton and his friends. For the time being, Duchamp still shares the limelight with Picabia, another tutelary figure of the group, whose portrait Desnos sketches in a style that is radically different from that of the rebus-landscapes that he deploys in the morts [the dead] drawings. First period of hypnotic sleeping fits. 5 pages in-8° in blue pencil. "Alarm and caprice where the winds and sea currents die and are lost... "At the two poles. These two poles which are Francis and Picabia... "Beardless memory takes my place in love.” Two small abstract drawings are titled "Marcel Duchamp" and "Picabia".

Creation date	1922
Date of publication	1922
Languages	French
Physical description	Ms [3] Ds [2] - crayon bleu
Library	Bibliothèque littéraire Jacques Doucet, Paris : BRT 161
Method of acquisition and collection	Bibliothèque littéraire Jacques Doucet, Paris, don Aube et Oona Elléouët
Reference	20000
Breton Auction, 2003	Lot 2026
Keywords	Graphic Arts, Work notes, Psychoanalysis, Dream, Automatic Writing
Categories	Manuscripts, Surrealists Manuscripts
Set	[Manuscripts] Sommeils
Permanent link	https://www.andrebreton.fr/en/work/56600100107510

Description

Dessins abstraits et manuscrit d'un sommeil de Robert Desnos annoté par Breton et datant de 1922.

« Le seul assassin est Marcel D[uchamp]. Les autres ne sont que ses reflets. » Placée une fois de plus sous le signe de la mort (image récurrente des « hommes enterrés vivants »), cette série mêle des dessins abstraits représentants des « pays » avec des formules de type assertoriques, la moindre bribe de récit tournant en définition : « Aujourd'hui à cinq heures, j'ai tué une femme qui avait les seins dans le dos et qu'on appelle poésie. » Le génie créateur de Desnos se concentre enfin dans une série de formules parmi lesquelles se détachent des perles de calembours, comme cette mention inattendue des « fleurs du pal ». Ces « locutions amoureuses », écrites de la main de Breton, sont apparemment de ces « jeux de mots, d'un type lyrique tout à fait inédit, qu'il fut longtemps en mesure de faire se succéder à un rythme qui tenait du prodige » (Entretiens, 1952), et dont Desnos a réuni une bonne partie dans Corps et biens sous le titre de « Rrose Sélavy ».

Premiers sommeils hypnotiques.
13 pages in-4° manuscrites au crayon noir en partie par Breton et Desnos, sur papier à en-tête «Congrès de Paris» ou divers papiers.
« M. Crotti il aura un accident d'auto dans une route du Dauphiné mais il n'en mourra pas encore cette fois-là il mourra dans 17 ans ? - 3 mai 1928. - Une date où je le vois rencontrer une femme qu'il connaît depuis de longues années. »
« À 5 heures j'ai tué une fm [femme] qui avait les seins dans le dos et qu'on appelait la poésie. Qui vient d'entrer. Je ne veux pas savoir. C'est encore un de ces inconnus que les corbillards. La poésie, cette fm [femme] à demi-pourrie on l'a jetée en Seine. Baron. - Pourquoi cet hm [homme] est-il ft [fait] avec du brouillard ? »
Sur papier à lettres :
« Préférez-vous écrire ou parler. Écrivez. - Le sol est en acier mais l'amour est en nacre ah ah ah et le 4 magique. »
« Que représente ce dessin ? - Picabia. »
« ...à 100 m de lui, un homme tua une femme - Le seul assassin est Marcel D. Les autres ne sont que ses reflets. »

Creation date	1922
Date of publication	1922
Languages	French
Physical description	Ms et Ds - crayon noir
Library	Bibliothèque littéraire Jacques Doucet, Paris : BRT 161
Method of acquisition and collection	Bibliothèque littéraire Jacques Doucet, Paris, don Aube et Oona Elléouët
Reference	22000
Breton Auction, 2003	Lot 2026
Keywords	Graphic Arts, Divination, Work notes, Psychoanalysis, Dream, Automatic Writing
Categories	Manuscripts, Surrealists Manuscripts
Set	[Manuscripts] Sommeils
Permanent link	https://www.andrebreton.fr/en/work/56600100920090

Description

Handwritten fragments of conversation with a dreamer, probably dating from 1922. "Not a suicide but almost": on the back of this page there is a fragment of a conversation with a dreamer, which once again reveals the omnipresence of the theme of death - the importance of which could be attributed to its place in the unconscious, but also to the connotations of this type of experience, close to spiritualism and clairvoyance. On the front of the sheet, a few lines seem to constitute a poem, probably written during a ‘sleeping fit’ - the jolting prosody of the third line and, above all, the final adjective, in the manner of Apollinaire, rule out any hypothesis that these are verses composed in full consciousness... What remains is the development of an inner rhyme that clearly draws the text towards poetry: "Lover of marine goddesses / shall I bring my love to the lace-maker / of Mechelen who sneers but is so affectionate". First period of hypnotic sleeping fits 2 pages in-4° and in-8° handwritten. "Lover of the marine goddesses, shall I bring my love to the lace-maker of Mechelen who sneers but is so affectionate."

Creation date	1922
Date of publication	1922
Languages	French
Physical description	Ms - crayons noir et bleu
Library	Bibliothèque littéraire Jacques Doucet, Paris : BRT 161
Method of acquisition and collection	Bibliothèque littéraire Jacques Doucet, Paris, don Aube et Oona Elléouët
Reference	24000
Breton Auction, 2003	Lot 2026
Keywords	Work notes, Psychoanalysis, Dream, Automatic Writing
Categories	Manuscripts, Surrealists Manuscripts
Set	[Manuscripts] Sommeils
Permanent link	https://www.andrebreton.fr/en/work/56600100193170

Description

Manuscript of a sleeping fit and drawings jotted down by Robert Desnos and with notes by Breton, dated 28 November 1922. The last drawing in this series, marked “Cherchez la clef” [Look for the key], has the interesting feature of alternating different phases of the sleeping fit - from near-consciousness to near-unconsciousness, with illegible graffiti and childish writing, before returning to a state of greater clarity and creativity. In the passage from the question "Where is the blood?" to "that of the naked", the first part of a dialogue seems to have been sketched out. One could imagine an assistant asking: “What blood?” Desnos, given over to his fantasies - death and sexuality, the two major motifs of the unconscious - then returns to lighter and brighter things, his mind galvanised for word-play. Auric, the musician, was one of those with whom Breton attempted to organise the Congrès de Paris (the International Congress to Determine the Directives and Defence of the Modern Spirit) at the beginning of that year. On the first sheet from the session, Auric’s death is foretold by an extra-lucid and hyper-precise Desnos, then his name becomes merely the plaything of puns: "Oh ris cocher des flots / Auric hochet des flots / au ricochet des flots." [Oh laugh mounting the waves, Auric shaking the waves, at the ricochet of the waves.] First period hypnotic sleeping fits 28 November 1922 - 8 pages (21 x 24 cm) with texts, some illustrated with drawings: "Oh ris cocher des flots, Auric hochet des flots, au ricochet des flots."

Creation date	28-nov.-22
Date of publication	1922
Languages	French
Physical description	Ms [4] et Ds [4] - crayon noir
Library	Bibliothèque littéraire Jacques Doucet, Paris : BRT 161
Method of acquisition and collection	Bibliothèque littéraire Jacques Doucet, Paris, don Aube et Oona Elléouët
Breton Auction, 2003	Lot 2026
Keywords	Graphic Arts, Dream, Automatic Writing
Categories	Manuscripts, Surrealists Manuscripts
Set	[Manuscripts] Sommeils
Permanent link	https://www.andrebreton.fr/en/work/56600100302270