La relève du matin, avec dix lithographies de Robert Delaunay
This bibliophile edition of *La relève du matin* combines an early text by Henry de Montherlant with ten original hors-texte lithographs by Robert Delaunay. It is the first edition of the work illustrated by Delaunay and therefore represents a remarkable encounter between an important French writer and a key figure of modern art. Delaunay, celebrated for his pioneering investigations of colour, rhythm and simultaneous contrasts, here translates his visual language into black-and-white lithography. The prints are not merely illustrative but provide an autonomous visual resonance for the book’s memories of youth, comradeship and war. This copy, number 257, is according to its limitation one of 440 copies on Vélin Lafuma within the numbered edition of 500. Its refined modern binding by Le Fil du Livre, with multicoloured paper boards and the original wrappers and spine preserved, forms an apt echo of Delaunay’s reputation as a colourist. It is an appealing artist’s book in which literature, original printmaking and individual bookbinding are brought together with distinction.
Quantity
Montherlant, Henry de
Delaunay, Robert
La relève du matin, avec dix lithographies de Robert Delaunay
1928 | Paris | Éditions SPES, L’Arbre
This first edition illustrated by Robert Delaunay combines a key work from Montherlant’s early career with ten original lithographs by a master of European modernism. The freshness of the prints, the Vélin Lafuma and the multicoloured binding signed Le Fil du Livre make copy 257 an unusually coherent collector’s copy.
This bibliophile edition of *La relève du matin* combines an early text by Henry de Montherlant with ten original hors-texte lithographs by Robert Delaunay. It is the first edition of the work illustrated by Delaunay and therefore represents a remarkable encounter between an important French writer and a key figure of modern art. Delaunay, celebrated for his pioneering investigations of colour, rhythm and simultaneous contrasts, here translates his visual language into black-and-white lithography. The prints are not merely illustrative but provide an autonomous visual resonance for the book’s memories of youth, comradeship and war. This copy, number 257, is according to its limitation one of 440 copies on Vélin Lafuma within the numbered edition of 500. Its refined modern binding by Le Fil du Livre, with multicoloured paper boards and the original wrappers and spine preserved, forms an apt echo of Delaunay’s reputation as a colourist. It is an appealing artist’s book in which literature, original printmaking and individual bookbinding are brought together with distinction.
€520
Condition Report:
In-Depth Study
References & Bibliography
Format
In-8 (Octavo) approx. 20 × 26 cm
Edition Particulars
No. 257; one of 440 copies on Vélin Lafuma.
Print Run
500
Copy Number
No. 257
Paper
Vélin Lafuma
Inscription
No inscription
Product DETAIL
*La relève du matin* gathers texts in which Montherlant looks back on his youth, his school years and the friendships that shaped his adolescence. At its centre is a generation of young men moving from the relatively sheltered world of the collège into the ordeal of the First World War. Friendship, discipline, idealism and personal formation are repeatedly set against the loss of contemporaries at the front. The writer commemorates dead companions and considers what remains of the values and expectations of their youth after the experience of war. The book does not unfold as a conventional novel but as a sequence of memories, portraits and reflections. It thus creates an account that is both personal and generational of the passage from adolescence to adulthood in wartime. From this material emerge the broader themes of heroism, loyalty, death and remembrance that would remain important throughout Montherlant’s later work.
Morand, Paul · Hugo, Jean
Les Amis nouveaux
This first separate edition of *Les Amis nouveaux* combines Paul Morand’s swift, ironic prose with nine original copper drypoints by Jean Hugo. The brief novella compresses a love triangle into the tense intimacy of a single dinner. Morand’s controlled dialogue and incisive observations reveal how rivalry can unexpectedly turn into mutual understanding. Hugo accompanies the text with a refined linear vocabulary that heightens its worldly lightness and psychological ambiguity. The bistre or sanguine tones give the prints a warm, almost intimate presence on the page. As a numbered large-paper copy on vergé d’Arches, the book has considerable bibliophilic appeal.
Illustrated Book
€260
Michaux, Henri · Bettencourt, Pierre
Arriver à se réveiller
A rare first edition of Arriver à se réveiller, written by Henri Michaux in the tremulous post-war years. The text unfolds as an inward journey toward lucidity, where sleep and waking mirror each other. Printed and published by Pierre Bettencourt in his own workshop, the edition’s small run preserves the work’s intimacy. The title-page vignette, a linocut by Bettencourt, sets a spare, rhythmic visual key that amplifies Michaux’s vigilant, vulnerable tone. This copy is handsomely bound in brown morocco with balsa boards by Miguet, a tactile nod to lightness under tension. For bibliophiles, it is an exemplary union of poetry, craft, and experiment. The volume embodies the independence of the post-war small press and Michaux’s radical sensitivity.
Illustrated Book
€680
Char, Rene · Stael, Nicolas de
Arrière-histoire du poème pulvérisé
*Arrière-histoire du poème pulvérisé* is a later illustrated edition of a key text in which René Char looks back on the genesis and inner background of *Le Poème pulvérisé*. Published in 1972 by Imprimerie Union, it opens with a colour frontispiece by Nicolas de Staël. The pairing of Char and de Staël is especially charged: two post-war voices, each seeking concentration, clarity, and rupture in his own medium. This copy is one of only six hors commerce copies on Arches and is signed. The autograph presentation inscription to Doctor Marcel Zara, with poetic quotation and October 1972 dating, makes it a deeply personal copy.
