Paul ÉLUARD - His fascinating list of works sold to Roland PENROSE.

Paul ÉLUARD (1895.1952)

Autograph manuscript.

List of works of art sold to Roland Penrose.

Three folio pages. Slnd [June 1938]

Éluard's list is accompanied by the autograph receipt signed by Roland Penrose attesting to having paid a deposit of £100 on the 1600 due.

 

“6 Chirico, 10 Picasso, 40 Marx Ernst, 8 Miró, 3 Tanguy, 4 Magritte, 3 Man Ray, 3 Dali, 3 Arp, 1 Klee, 1 Chagall, and various other paintings. »

Impressive autograph list of the collection of works of art sold by Éluard to Roland Penrose, in June 1938, accompanied by the latter's receipt.

The hundred pieces in Paul Éluard's collection are dizzying: 6 Chirico, 10 Picasso, 40 Max Ernst ^* , 8 Miró, 4 Dalí and as many Tanguys, 3 Man Ray, without forgetting Giacometti, Klee, Chagall, Arp, Paalen , Toyen, Styrsky… and around twenty primitive art objects! More than a list, it is a real museum census: the entire avant-garde is gathered here and rubs shoulders with works of primitive art mainly from the islands of the Pacific Ocean.

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Chirico: The Uncertainty of the Poet (1913) L.05 x 0.9H

     “: The greeting of the distant friend (1916) 0.47 x 0.35

     “: Metaphysical Interior (1919) 0.45 x 0.30

     “: The surprise (1914) 1.03 x 0.75

     “: Portrait of Gala and Paul Éluard (1924) 0.72 x 0.62

     “: The poet and the philosopher (very elaborate drawing 1913) 31 x 24

  

Picasso: Sculpture (1914) Glass, cheese, knife (wood) 41 x 27

     “: End of a monster (drawing 1937) 56 x 37

     “: The dancers (watercolor 1915) 14 x 12

     “: The talking pencil (1935) watercolor. 51 x 34

     “: Glass (painting 1922) 20 x 14

     “: Portrait of Nusch (wash .1937) 44 x 29

     “: Postcard (drawing 1937) 32 x 22

     “: Great air (engraving, 1936. Poem P. Éluard)

     “: Engraving (1935) 69 x 49

     “: Little wire character (1937) 20 x 6

 

17 Max Ernst: The Elephant of Celebes (1921) 125 x 108

18 “: Oedipus-Rex (1922) 102 x 92

19 “: The Revolution at night (1923) 115 x 89

20 “: The Bride of the Wind 99 x 79 (1924)

21 “: The Desert Rose (1925) 74 x 59

22 “: The Duck (1924) 33 x 26

23 “: Relief (1920) 43 x 38

24 “: Blue Dove (1925) 64 x 52

25 “: White Dove (1925) 63 x 54

26 “: The Tricolor the Terrible and the newsagent (1925)

27 “: The Idol (1926)

28 “: Aquis submersus (1919) 0.53 x 0.43

29 “: Catarina ondulata (collage 1920)

30 “: Landscape with birds (1922) 1m.00 x 0.76

 

31 – The couple in the city (1919) 37 x 29

32 – Floral landscape (1924) 46 x 38

33 – Two people, a dog (1926)

34 – Black Navy in Blue Sun (1924)

35 – Navy in the Black Sun (1924)

36 – Entry into the earth (1924)

37 – The Rescuers (1923) 64 x 46

38 – Dream (1923) 34 x 27

39 – Eve the only one left to us (1925) 50 x 21

40 – Forest (1925) 80 x 54

41 – The Lovers (1926) 92 x 65

42 – Blue navy in blue sun (1924) 72 x 60

43 – The octopus (1926) 80 x 65

44 – Trees (1925) 90 x 54

45 – The couple ((1923) 73 x 54

46 – Forest (1925) 80 x 54

47 – The woman with the umbrella (19

47 – The Storm (1923) 79 x 68

48 – The woman with the umbrella (1923) 16 x10

49 – Forest (1925) 61 x 46

50 – Character (collage 1932)

51 – Marine in the yellow sun (1923)

52 – Green Navy (1923)

53 – Black Landscape (1923)

54 – Forest (1924)

55 – The sand ascarid (large collage 1920)

56 – Forest (relief 1924)

 

Dominguez: Magnetic object (1935) 31 x 18

                         The piano (1934) 89 x 78

Brauner: Study (1934) 27 x 19

                  Portrait of Paul Éluard (1934) 72 x 59

 

Seligmann: Composition (1936) 47 x 40

 

Picabia: Animation (1913) watercolor 64 x 52

     “: Tiliae (1928)

     “: Aurita (1928)

 

Dali: Dove (1926) 61 x 50

    “: Large drawing (1936) 75 x 52

    “: Artifices (1929) 65 x 40

 

Giacometti: Portrait of PE (1933) 72 x 59

 

Objects

Bali dancer

Dragon Bali

Head News- Hebrides

New Guinea molded skull head

Head New Zealand

Mask – British Columbia

Statue Philippines

Funeral fetish (round) Ogooué

Pahouine Statue

Statue (stone) Costa – Rica

Pipe (character and slate frog) British Columbia

Doll (New – Mexico)

Funeral fetish. Ogooué

Mask – New Guinea

Statuette – New Guinea

Jade object from Peru

Eskimo: Engraved bone

 

Giacometti: Head (sculpture)

 

3 Benquet (The Shepherd – Portrait of Gambetta – Landscape)

 

Klee: 57 – The Knight of Hohen (1921)

 

Chagall: 58 – In the village (1912) 31 x 21

 

Tanguy: Album of 20 drawings (1927) 0.32 x 0.49

     “: Terrestrial Light (1929) 128 x 96

     “: Storm (1929)

     “: Azure derivatives (1929) 78 x 63

Man Ray: The Aviary (1919)

      “: Man Ray 1914

      “: The head and the hand (1926) 71 x 52

 

Miró: The Smoker (1925) 98 x 80

    “: The smoker (1925) 64 x 49

    “: Desire has (1925) 115 x 88

    “: Woman before dusk (1931) 24 x 19

    “: Nocturne (1935) 43 x 30

    “: Homage to Nusch (1937) 65 x 55

    “: The horse (1927) 33 x 24

    “: The palette (object 1930)

Magritte: The Menacing Time (1929) 71 x 52

      “: The belly (1937) 45 x 41

      “: Precious water (1929)

      “: Portrait (1930)

Arp: Gala portrait ((1905)

 “: Nose and mustache

 “: Relief (1922)

Paalen: Composition (1938) 91 x 72

Toyen: The voice of the forest (34)

Styrsky: Old Ocean (1934)

      “: The Bride (1934) collage

Bellmer: 2 gouaches

 

 

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Roland Penrose – Signed autograph receipt. One page in-8°. 21 Downshire Hill. NW3. June 27 [19]38

“I, the undersigned Roland Penrose, declare that I have paid the sum of £100 to Paul Éluard (Grindel) as a deposit on the purchase of his collection of paintings and objects consisting of around a hundred pieces: 6 Chirico, 10 Picasso, 40 Marx Ernst, 8 Miró, 3 Tanguy, 4 Magritte, 3 Man Ray, 3 Dali, 3 Arp, 1 Klee, 1 Chagall, and various other paintings and objects. The remainder of the agreed price of £1,600 will be paid on November 1, 1938 at the latest against the items sold which I will take 54 rue Legendre. Roland Penrose. »

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Roland Penrose was introduced to the very heart of the surrealist milieu by his first wife, the poet Valentine Boué, and then his friend Max Ernst. In 1936 he organized the first major international exhibition in London with André Breton and Paul Éluard. In that year, 1938, he opened the London Gallery, with the English surrealist group chaired by Herbert Read, and founded with Mesens the London Bulletin which was to be counted among the most active surrealist magazines until the war. That same year, 1938, he was behind the presentation of Guernica in London, at the New Burlington Galleries.

In the attached autograph receipt, dated June 27, Penrose specifies having paid a deposit of £100 on the 1,600 due (the sum leaves you speechless and probably hides an opaque arrangement). For this transaction, Paul Éluard would have set only one condition: that the price was not the subject of discussion.

The two men then spent the summer of 1938 in Mougins with Picasso, who seems to have been quite upset by this transaction, even if he did not hold it against his friend, the works having gone to a “close friend”.

In 1969 Roland Penrose was the victim of a theft which ended happily: 25 paintings and drawings by masters, valued at 300,000 pounds at the time, were found intact in a house being demolished. The collection included 6 Picassos as well as works by Chagall, Max Ernst, Chirico and Miró.

This impressive collection would today be valued at several hundred million euros, without much doubt.

 

 

^* Éluard actually owned 56 Ernsts, as well as other paintings by Bellmer, Picabia, Masson, Juan Gris and a sketch by Renoir.

 

 

Bibliography :

Paul Éluard and surrealist painting, 1910-1939, Geneva, Droz, 1982

The master paintings of Sir Roland Penrose have been found. The World – 1969