Description

Manuscript by André Breton for a preface to an album of photographs by Izis published in 1950 by Clairefontaine, Lausanne.

"The hull of the Pont-Neuf closes the water of victory" - a perfect alexandrine to celebrate the photographs of Izis Bidermanas (spelled here with a y). This short preface to an album of photographs perhaps responds not only to Breton's taste for views of Paris, but also to the evocative first name of the great goddess of esoteric traditions. The album was published in Lausanne in 1950, and the writers' contributions were reproduced from the manuscripts. [Atelier André Breton website, 2005]

Autograph manuscript, 1950. 

Texts by Breton illustrating the photographs of Izis in Paris des rêves, on pages 62, 104 and 154. 

- 1 page in-4° handwritten in blue ink, dated and titled in black pencil: "For Ysis (Paris Album) 1950". 

"A page from the grimoire, Impasse Traînée: beloved for themselves the pillars from which Klee made the birds and the woods...". (4, Impasse Traînée, Montmartre). 

"As well here as elsewhere...” (Passage de Gergovie). 

"But where have the flower girls gone?” (La coque du Pont-Neuf). [Auction Catalogue, 2003].

 

Bibliography

André Breton (Édition de Marguerite Bonnet avec la collaboration de Philippe Bernier, Marie-Claire Dumas, Étienne-Alain Hubert et José Pierre), Alentours II, Œuvres complètes, tome III, Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, Paris, Gallimard, 1999, p. 1033, note p. 1447.

 

Creation date	1950
Bibliographical material	MS - blue ink and black pencil - 1 page in-4°
Languages	French
Reference	517000
Breton Auction, 2003	Lot 2314
Keywords	Exhibitions, Work notes, Photography
Categories	Manuscripts, Andre Breton's Manuscripts
Set	[AB's Manuscripts] Miscellaneous Manuscripts
Exhibition	Paris des rêves, 1950
Permanent link	https://www.andrebreton.fr/en/work/56600100572340

See also