La Femme 100 Têtes
Ernst, Max
Paris. Editions du Carrefour. 1929
Sold
Max Ernst's own copy of the édition de tête of La Femme 100 Têtes on Japon Impérial paper.
From the edition limited to 1,000 numbered copies, with this édition de tête copy - lettered 'B' in black ink - one of three hors commerce copies on Japon Impérial (12 numbered copies were also issued on the same paper.
The justification of the present copy features Max Ernst's bookplate and a note in blue ink on squared paper is also included, loosely inserted, from the binder Georges Leroux: 'cet exemplaire de 'la Femme sans tête' [sic] m'a été / confié par Ma Ernst le 12 Mai 1968 - / Je le lui ai rendu en Mars 1969. / le prix de la reliure était de 1.250 N. F. / (Georges LEROUX)'.
The justification features the printed name 'Marie-Berthe', the name of Max Ernst's second wife, Marie-Berthe Aurenche, as in ' ... 3 ex[emplaires]. H[ors]. C[ommerce]. dont l'un imprimé au nom de ... ', but in the present copy, 'Marie-Berthe' has been excised and seemingly with prejudice, the printed name scraped and overlaid with blue, sepia and heavy black inks to form the word 'MERDE'. It is very tempting to assume that this replacement was effected by Ernst himself, or by one of his later wives, Peggy Guggenheim or Dorothea Tanning.
Also included, loosely inserted, are eight leaves of proofs including the half-title, title, the first plate 'Crime ou miracle: un homme complet' and the 'Avis au Lecteur' by André Breton. The proofs are for a later edition of 'La Femme 100 Têtes' that was to be published by 'Arcanes' in 1954 (the leaves are stamped '9 MARS 1954' on an initial blank) although it was never issued. The complete text of Breton's 'Avis' features extensive corrections in black ink in Breton's hand, the text matches that of the first edition and is inscribed on the first page of text 'Bon à tirer / après corrections [underlined] 21 mars 1954 / AB.'.
'La Femme 100 Têtes' is the first of Max Ernst's trilogy of Surrealist books with illustrations after his collages. The collages, in the manner of nineteenth-century engravings, were made by Ernst from old etching and engraving plates and each feature a descriptive caption by Ernst. The 'Avis au Lecteur' serving as preface was written by André Breton.
Referred to subsequently as a 'collage novel', the work is divided into 9 chapters but features only one leaf of text; inserted between the end of the 'Chapitre Huitième' and the 'Chapitre Dernière', the text reads as follows: 'Sachez que, / de mémoire d'homme, la femme 100 têtes n'a jamais eu de rapport / avec le fantôme de la repopulation. Elle n'en aura pas: plutôt se / faire macérer dans de la rosée et se nourrir de violettes glacées.'
'La Femme 100 têtes sera, par excellence, le livre d'images de ce temps où il va de plus en plus apparaître que chaque salon est descendu 'au fond d'un lac' et cela, il convient d'y insister, avec ses lustres de poissons, ses dorures d'astres, ses danses d'herbes, son fond de boue et ses toilettes de reflets. Telle est à la veille de 1930, notre idée de progrès que nous sommes heureux et impatients, pour une fois, de voir des yeux d'enfants, grands de tout le devenir, s'ouvrir comme des papillons au bord de ce lac tandis que pour leur émerveillement et le nôtre tombe le loup de dentelle noire qui recouvrait les cent premiers visages de la fée.' (André Breton writing in the 'Avis au Lecteur').
Copies of La Femme 100 Têtes on Japon Impérial paper from the édition de tête, as here, are of exceptional rarity. As with Max Ernst's other early books, such as the 1930 Rêve d'une Petite Fille qui Voulut Entrer au Carmel (the second part of the same trilogy of collage novels concluding with Une Semaine de Bonté in 1934) and the 1926 Histoire Naturelle which were also issued in the édition de tête in small numbers on Japon Impérial, copies appear very rarely on the market. We can locate only one other example from the édition de tête, the René Gaffé / Jean Hugues / Edmée Maus / Renaud Gillet / Fred Feinsilber copy sold at Sotheby's Paris in 2006. The important collection of Daniel Filipacchi, a noted devotee of the work of Max Ernst, sold by Christie's Paris in two parts in 2004 and 2005 did not include a copy of La Femme 100 Têtes from the édition de tête. It is worth noting, in addition, that André Breton, the author of the 'Avis au Lecteur' of Ernst's work and a noted bibliophile, only possessed a copy of La Femme 100 Têtes on the second paper, Hollande Pannkoek.
'Presque tout, dans l'oeuvre de Max Ernst, se rattache au collage ... On pourrait [en] conclure qu'il [La Femme 100 Têtes] d'un chant d'amour Surréaliste. L'ouvrage connut un succès immédiat. Le tirage fut épuisé en quelques semaines ... Ouvrage précurseur, puisqu'il inaugure un élargissement fondamental par rapport aux collages antérieurs, La Femme 100 Têtes révèle une écriture et une conception picturale nouvelles.' (From the Feinsilber catalogue).
[see lot 195 in the catalogue 'Collection Fred Feinsilber, Sotheby's Paris, October, 2006].
From the edition limited to 1,000 numbered copies, with this édition de tête copy - lettered 'B' in black ink - one of three hors commerce copies on Japon Impérial (12 numbered copies were also issued on the same paper.
The justification of the present copy features Max Ernst's bookplate and a note in blue ink on squared paper is also included, loosely inserted, from the binder Georges Leroux: 'cet exemplaire de 'la Femme sans tête' [sic] m'a été / confié par Ma Ernst le 12 Mai 1968 - / Je le lui ai rendu en Mars 1969. / le prix de la reliure était de 1.250 N. F. / (Georges LEROUX)'.
The justification features the printed name 'Marie-Berthe', the name of Max Ernst's second wife, Marie-Berthe Aurenche, as in ' ... 3 ex[emplaires]. H[ors]. C[ommerce]. dont l'un imprimé au nom de ... ', but in the present copy, 'Marie-Berthe' has been excised and seemingly with prejudice, the printed name scraped and overlaid with blue, sepia and heavy black inks to form the word 'MERDE'. It is very tempting to assume that this replacement was effected by Ernst himself, or by one of his later wives, Peggy Guggenheim or Dorothea Tanning.
Also included, loosely inserted, are eight leaves of proofs including the half-title, title, the first plate 'Crime ou miracle: un homme complet' and the 'Avis au Lecteur' by André Breton. The proofs are for a later edition of 'La Femme 100 Têtes' that was to be published by 'Arcanes' in 1954 (the leaves are stamped '9 MARS 1954' on an initial blank) although it was never issued. The complete text of Breton's 'Avis' features extensive corrections in black ink in Breton's hand, the text matches that of the first edition and is inscribed on the first page of text 'Bon à tirer / après corrections [underlined] 21 mars 1954 / AB.'.
'La Femme 100 Têtes' is the first of Max Ernst's trilogy of Surrealist books with illustrations after his collages. The collages, in the manner of nineteenth-century engravings, were made by Ernst from old etching and engraving plates and each feature a descriptive caption by Ernst. The 'Avis au Lecteur' serving as preface was written by André Breton.
Referred to subsequently as a 'collage novel', the work is divided into 9 chapters but features only one leaf of text; inserted between the end of the 'Chapitre Huitième' and the 'Chapitre Dernière', the text reads as follows: 'Sachez que, / de mémoire d'homme, la femme 100 têtes n'a jamais eu de rapport / avec le fantôme de la repopulation. Elle n'en aura pas: plutôt se / faire macérer dans de la rosée et se nourrir de violettes glacées.'
'La Femme 100 têtes sera, par excellence, le livre d'images de ce temps où il va de plus en plus apparaître que chaque salon est descendu 'au fond d'un lac' et cela, il convient d'y insister, avec ses lustres de poissons, ses dorures d'astres, ses danses d'herbes, son fond de boue et ses toilettes de reflets. Telle est à la veille de 1930, notre idée de progrès que nous sommes heureux et impatients, pour une fois, de voir des yeux d'enfants, grands de tout le devenir, s'ouvrir comme des papillons au bord de ce lac tandis que pour leur émerveillement et le nôtre tombe le loup de dentelle noire qui recouvrait les cent premiers visages de la fée.' (André Breton writing in the 'Avis au Lecteur').
Copies of La Femme 100 Têtes on Japon Impérial paper from the édition de tête, as here, are of exceptional rarity. As with Max Ernst's other early books, such as the 1930 Rêve d'une Petite Fille qui Voulut Entrer au Carmel (the second part of the same trilogy of collage novels concluding with Une Semaine de Bonté in 1934) and the 1926 Histoire Naturelle which were also issued in the édition de tête in small numbers on Japon Impérial, copies appear very rarely on the market. We can locate only one other example from the édition de tête, the René Gaffé / Jean Hugues / Edmée Maus / Renaud Gillet / Fred Feinsilber copy sold at Sotheby's Paris in 2006. The important collection of Daniel Filipacchi, a noted devotee of the work of Max Ernst, sold by Christie's Paris in two parts in 2004 and 2005 did not include a copy of La Femme 100 Têtes from the édition de tête. It is worth noting, in addition, that André Breton, the author of the 'Avis au Lecteur' of Ernst's work and a noted bibliophile, only possessed a copy of La Femme 100 Têtes on the second paper, Hollande Pannkoek.
'Presque tout, dans l'oeuvre de Max Ernst, se rattache au collage ... On pourrait [en] conclure qu'il [La Femme 100 Têtes] d'un chant d'amour Surréaliste. L'ouvrage connut un succès immédiat. Le tirage fut épuisé en quelques semaines ... Ouvrage précurseur, puisqu'il inaugure un élargissement fondamental par rapport aux collages antérieurs, La Femme 100 Têtes révèle une écriture et une conception picturale nouvelles.' (From the Feinsilber catalogue).
[see lot 195 in the catalogue 'Collection Fred Feinsilber, Sotheby's Paris, October, 2006].
[164 unnumbered leaves]. 4to. (254 x 202 mm). Leaf with justification verso, half-title, printed title with copyright verso, 3 leaves with Breton's 'Avis' recto and verso and 'Chapitre Premier' to 'Chapitre Dernier' with one leaf of text ('Sachez que ... &c.') illustrated with 147 monochrome plates printed recto only after collages by Ernst each with printed caption, final leaf with achevé d'imprimer recto. Full emerald crushed morocco by Georges Leroux with his signature gilt and dated '1969', smooth spine with gilt titles, olive brushed suede doublures and endpapers, original publisher's turquoise printed wrappers with titles and vignette in black preserved, a.e.g., later green cloth board slipcase.
#47317
