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

Paul Éluard (1895.1952)

Autograph manuscript.

List of artworks sold to Roland Penrose.

Three folio pages. No place of publication [June 1938]

Éluard's list is accompanied by Roland Penrose's autographed receipt attesting to having paid a deposit of 100 pounds out of the 1600 due.

 

"6 Chirico, 10 Picasso, 40 Max 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 receipt in the latter's handwriting.

The hundred or so pieces in Paul Éluard's collection are dizzying: 6 Chiricos, 10 Picassos, 40 Max Ernsts ^* , 8 Mirós, 4 Dalís and as many Tanguys, 3 Man Rays, not to mention Giacometti, Klee, Chagall, Arp, Paalen, Toyen, Styrsky… and some twenty objects of tribal art! More than a list, it's a veritable museum inventory: the entire avant-garde is gathered here and rubs shoulders with works of tribal art, mostly from the islands of the Pacific Ocean.

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

     “ : The Greeting from a 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 (highly detailed 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

     “ : The Glass (painting 1922) 20 x 14

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

     “ : Postcard (drawing 1937) 32 x 22

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

     “ : Engraving (1935) 69 x 49

     “: Small wire figure (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 Terrible Tricolor 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) 1.00m x 0.76m

 

31 – The Couple in the City (1919) 37 x 29

32 – Floral landscape (1924) 46 x 38

33 – Two Characters, a Dog (1926)

34 – Black Seascape with Blue Sun (1924)

35 – Seascape in the Black Sun (1924)

36 – Entering 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 Seascape with 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 x 10

49 – Forest (1925) 61 x 46

50 – Figure (collage 1932)

51 – Seascape in Yellow Sun (1923)

52 – Green Marine (1923)

53 – Black Landscape (1923)

54 – Forest (1924)

55 – The sand roundworm (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

New Hebrides Head

New Guinea Skull Head Overmolded

New Zealand Head

British Columbia Mask

Statue Philippines

Funerary fetish (round) Ogooué

Pahouine Statue

Statue (stone) Costa – Rica

Pipe (character and slate frog) British Columbia

Doll (New Mexico)

Funerary 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

     “ : Earthly 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 the twilight (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 Threatening Weather (1929) 71 x 52

      “ : The Belly (1937) 45 x 41

      “: Precious Water (1929)

      “ : Portrait (1930)

Arp: Gala portrait ((1905)

 “: Nose and moustache

 “ : 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 gouache paintings

 

 

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Roland Penrose – Autographed receipt signed. One page, octavo. 21 Downshire Hill, NW3. June 27, 1938

"I, the undersigned Roland Penrose, declare that I have paid the sum of 100 pounds to Paul Éluard (Grindel) as a deposit on the purchase of his collection of paintings and objects, consisting of approximately one hundred pieces: 6 Chirico, 10 Picasso, 40 Max Ernst, 8 Miró, 3 Tanguy, 4 Magritte, 3 Man Ray, 3 Dalí, 3 Arp, 1 Klee, 1 Chagall, and various other paintings and objects. The remainder of the agreed price of 1,600 pounds will be paid no later than November 1, 1938, against the items sold, which I will collect at 54 rue Legendre. Roland Penrose."

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Roland Penrose was introduced to the heart of the Surrealist movement by his first wife, the poet Valentine Boué, and later by his friend Max Ernst. In 1936, he organized the first major international exhibition in London with André Breton and Paul Éluard. That same year, 1938, he opened the London Gallery with the English Surrealist group headed by Herbert Read, and founded, with Mesens, the London Bulletin, which would remain one of the most active Surrealist journals until the war. Also in 1938, he was instrumental in bringing Guernica to London, at the New Burlington Galleries.

In the attached handwritten receipt, dated June 27, Penrose specifies that he paid a deposit of £100 on the £1,600 due (the sum is astonishing and likely conceals an opaque arrangement). For this transaction, Paul Éluard apparently stipulated only one condition: that the price not be negotiable.

The two men then spent the summer of 1938 in Mougins at Picasso's house, who seems to have been quite upset by this transaction, even though he did not hold it against his friend, as the works had gone to a "close friend".

In 1969, Roland Penrose was the victim of a theft that fortunately had a happy ending: 25 paintings and drawings by masters, valued at 300,000 pounds at the time, were found intact in a house slated for demolition. The collection included six Picassos as well as works by Chagall, Max Ernst, Chirico, and Miró.

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

 

 

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

 

 

Bibliography :

Paul Éluard and Surrealist Painting, 1910-1939, Geneva, Droz, 1982

Sir Roland Penrose's masterpieces have been found. Le Monde – 1969