Text by Breton and Paul Éluard about the writing of The Immaculate Conception, dated January 1935.
Éluard’s handwritten page, dated 1935, signed André Breton, Paul Éluard: ‘Note about a collaboration.’
Text inserted by André Breton in his copy of The Immaculate Conception.
Handwritten manuscript, January 1935.
A handwritten page by Paul Éluard dated 1935 and signed ‘André Breton, Paul Éluard’, ‘ Note about a collaboration'.
one page in ink in-4: ‘To be two in order to destroy, to build and to live is already to be everything, to be the other to infinity and no longer oneself. Each strand of sunlight supports a snowflake, each outstretched hand a known look.’ [sale catalogue, 2003]
One of the two versions of this manuscript has not been reproduced. We wonder if there actually are two versions, or if the version reproduced here is the only one that exists. [André Breton website, 2019]
The duplication reported here is curious. We wonder if Breton copied the page, precisely because The Immaculate Conception was a book they wanted to stand as an object written by two hands. But what can be done if there is no trace of this other page? Look for who bought it? Would that be possible?
However, this particular page is well known, and is much later than the writing of The Immaculate Conception (which dates from the summer of 1930). It was sent to Breton from Davos by Éluard in 1935 (see Œuvres complètes, p.1633) for approval ahead of a Japanese edition of The Immaculate Conception. The multi-layered manuscripts of parts II, III and IV of The Immaculate Conception in the Picasso Museum (Breton having sold them to Picasso) do not include this page. And they are right because it was written much later.
The facsimile published by L'Age d'homme under the title The Immaculate Conception is moreover incomplete, since the chapter 'L'Homme', published earlier in Le Surréalisme au service de la Révolution issue 2, October 1930, was written and intended to be the first part of The Immaculate Conception, a work composed and published by André Breton and Paul Éluard. [thanks to Jacqueline Chénieux-Gendron, André Breton website, 2019]
*This entry was translated from the French by Michael Richardson.
| Creation date | 01/1935 |
| Bibliographical material | 1 page in-4° 1 page in-12 |
| Languages | French |
| Physical description | Ms - encre noire |
| Number of pages | 1 |
| Reference | 6335000 |
| Breton Auction, 2003 | Lot 135 |
| Keywords | Work notes, Poetry, Automatic Writing |
| Categories | Andre Breton's Manuscripts |
| Permanent link | https://www.andrebreton.fr/en/work/56600101000247 |
Recueil de poésies d'André Breton et de Paul Éluard orné d'une illustration en couverture de Salvador Dali, d'un dessin de Clovis Trouille, truffé de manuscrits, d'une lettre et de coupures de presse. Publié en 1930.
Cinq images, une notice descriptive, un lien.
