12 PHOTOGRAPHIES D'ŒUVRES

A unique homage to Henri Matisse, published in Monaco during the final stages of World War II. This remarkable book blends literature, photography and visual art, featuring contributions from some of the leading French artists of the 20th century. It includes poetry by Paul Éluard, an essay by André Rouveyre, and a suite of Matisse drawings, complemented by a striking frontispiece by Leonor Fini and an original photograph by Brassaï.

In 1967, Jean Dubuffet partnered with London’s Editions Alecto on *Cartes à jouer et à tirer*, playfully recasting his visual vocabulary into the scale of a deck of cards. The set comprises 52 separate cards, each silkscreen-printed, forming a quirky alphabet of lines, planes, and scribbled textures. The title invites action—both “to play” and “to draw”—letting chance and handling shape meaning. Housed in the publisher’s slipcase, the work sits between artist’s book and portable multiple. This hors commerce copy, marked H.C. 11, is in notably fresh condition. It exemplifies Dubuffet’s anti-aesthetic joined to technical exactitude, an irresistible proposition for bibliophiles at the book-object threshold.

Two original program booklets from Serge Diaghilev’s legendary Ballets Russes, featuring contributions by avant-garde artists such as Picasso, Matisse, Sert, and de Chirico. Rare artifacts of interdisciplinary modernism between dance, visual art, and typography during the interwar period.

*Une aventure méthodique* brings together Pierre Reverdy’s concentrated poetic prose and Georges Braque’s austere visual language. It belongs among the major post-war French livres d’artiste, where text, lithography and typography meet as equal forces. Braque contributed 27 original lithographs, supplemented by colour reproductions after his paintings, giving the volume both intimacy and monumentality. Printed by Mourlot, the celebrated Paris lithographic workshop, the book has exceptional technical refinement. This copy, on vélin d’Arches and signed by both author and artist, preserves a rare encounter between modern poetry and pictorial invention.