Page 56 - ernst - grandville_Demo

30. ERNST, Max. La Femme 100 Têtes. Paris. Editions du Carrefour. 1929.
4to. (254 x 202 mm). [164 unnumbered leaves]. 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.
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 Max 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[empaires]. 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 descrip- tive 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 Chapitre Huitième and the Chapitre Dernière: 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.
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.
Presque tout, dans l’oeuvre de Max Ernst, se rattache au collage ... On pourrait [en] conclure qu’il [La Femme 100 Têtes] s’agit 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].