Guillaume APOLLINAIRE evokes Marie Laurencin, Lou, and Robert Delaunay.

Guillaume Apollinaire (1880.1918)

Autograph card signed to Jean Mollet.

Two oblong octavo pages in purple ink.

Double-sided of an illustrated map of the Nîmes arenas.

Nimes. [February 7, 1915]

Remarkable document from Apollinaire sending his faithful friend a quatrain in tribute to his devotion during the First World War.

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 From the Wounded, Hope and Faith

O you who heal the typhus

My Jean Mollet, Hello to you

Hi ! O my mystical soldier!

Guillaume Apollinaire.

In the text written on the illustrated side of the card, Apollinaire evokes two essential figures in his sentimental life: Marie Laurencin and Louise de Coligny, the beautiful Lou who is preparing to join him in Nîmes:

" You're right. everything is fine. Besides, she will come in about ten days or a month. Send me Ms. Ricou's address. My mother wanted to write to you, I don't know if she did. Marie Laurencin wrote me a devastating letter with the description of her husband whom she calls drunk. She saw this coward Delaunay in Madrid where he took refuge. What a disgusting character. My mother wrote to me that Pierre is working hard to get you a medal. It seems that you are very heroic. That's it, old man, I kiss you. »

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Editorial secretary of Le Festin d'Ésope , close to Alfred Jarry, Apollinaire and many personalities of literary Paris in the pre-war years, Jean Mollet ( 1877-1964) was given the title of “Baron Mollet ” by the poet. In the 1950s, pataphysicians paid tribute to him by naming him Satrap and then Vice-Curator of their College.

Marie Laurencin had left Apollinaire after a long and stormy affair. Having married Baron Otto von Wätjen in 1914, she went into exile with him in Spain at the start of the war. There she met the couple Sonia and Robert Delaunay, also refugees in Spain, through Francis Picabia.

Guillaume Apollinaire met Louise de Coligny-Châtillon in September 1914 during his stay in Nice where he was awaiting his military incorporation. He immediately falls in love with her. On December 6, 1914, he left to join the 38th field artillery regiment in barracks in Nîmes where Lou joined him in mid-December 1914. They spent more than a week at the Hôtel du Midi, exploring together a sensuality that will long fuel the dreams of the poet confronted with the horrors of war. Lou will finally escape from Apollinaire and the break will be definitively consummated in March 1915, the day before Apollinaire's departure for the front.