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Description
(circa 1954).
Day and its opposite: ‘the spark of a love, a stroke of genius’, a crime, in short anything that can pierce the everyday and bring about something new – that never-before-seen whose revelation Breton demands from painting. But what is also the opposite of day is night, and through this the realm of dreams – that nocturnal domain that Breton accuses Magritte of having abandoned in favour of the sunshine.
Undated and unsigned, this text is part of the dossier brought together for the definitive edition of Surrealism and Painting in 1965. Its location in this dossier allows us to presume that it might date from 1954 or 1955. [Atelier André Breton website, 2005]
Undated handwritten manuscript (circa 1954).
1 in-4° manuscript page in ink by Breton, with deletions and corrections, on the reverse of headed notepaper for the journal Médium, of this text devoted to the poetry of Novalis.
‘The day dawns; one of yours just as it is one of mine. Nothing to be done, at least in the current circumstances poets stand against the day. Who among them said: “Must the morning always be reborn? Will the domination of the terrestrial know no end? A fateful venture delays the celestial arrival of Night. Can the hidden sacrifice of Love not burn for ever? A limited duration was allotted to day; but Night’s domination knows neither time nor space”. He was called Novalis, and I believe that no true poet will ever say otherwise.’ [catalogue de la vente, 2003]
Translated by Krzysztof Fijalkowski
Bibliography
André Breton (Édition publiée sous la direction d'Étienne-Alain Hubert avec la collaboration de Philippe Bernier et Marie-Claire Dumas), « Le jour se lève », Inédits, Œuvres complètes, tome IV, Écrits sur l'art et autres textes, Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, Paris, Gallimard, 2008, p. 1136-1137, notes p. 1471.
| Creation date | sd [circa 1954] |
| Bibliographical material | 1 in-4° manuscript page in black ink on the reverse of headed notepaper for Médium. André Breton, ‘Le jour se lève’, Inédits, Œuvres complètes, volume IV, Écrits sur l'art et autres textes (edition established by Marguerite Bonnet and edited by Étienne-Alain Hubert with contributions from Philippe Bernier and Marie-Claire Dumas), Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, Paris, Gallimard, 2008, pp. 1136-1137, notes p. 1471. |
| Languages | French |
| Library | |
| Number of pages | 1 p. |
| Reference | 696000 |
| Breton Auction, 2003 | Lot 2403 |
| Keywords | Work notes, Painting, Poetry, romantism |
| Categories | Andre Breton's Manuscripts |
| Set | [Breton's Manuscripts and Drawings] dossier Le Surréalisme et la peinture, [AB's Manuscripts] Miscellaneous Manuscripts |
| Permanent link | https://www.andrebreton.fr/en/work/56600100858430 |