Ernest de GENGENBACH.

Two autograph manuscripts, with collages from the André Breton collection. Undated [1950s]. 5 pages in-4, in ink and pencil, illustrated with photographic reproductions. Reunion of two unpublished autograph manuscripts, illustrated with collages, of Ernest de Gengenbach, known as Jean Genbach (1903-1979), the "most picturesque and disturbing" character of the surrealist movement (Maurice Nadeau). They address themselves to André Breton. Ernest de Gengenbach had contacted the Surrealist group in July 1925 with a letter describing the circumstances of his recent suicide attempt. At the time, he was at the Jesuits' Externat du Trocadero. Called to a fine position in the ecclesiastical world, he had a tentative affair with a young actress at the Odeon, was dismissed by the Jesuits and left alone on the Parisian streets. "In the middle of the season, my bishop forbade me to wear the cassock... and I had to defrock". This letter appeared in the fifth issue of La Révolution surréaliste. It engaged Gengenbach to frequent the group, in particular Breton, Artaud and Desnos. Enthralled by occultism, torn between mystical and sensual aspirations, the defrocked abbot was nevertheless to occupy a marginal position within the group. He got married in 1953 and was involved in secret diplomatic missions in Algeria. He would end his life in poverty. The first manuscript, entitled Satan in Spain, a draft of a scenario painting. Autograph manuscript of a page dedicated to André Breton, written on a double sheet in-4, illustrated with two large collages on the back. Gengenbach reports on a disappointing experience: the refusal to go to the followers of Charles de Foucauld in Algeria. He pasted the receipt of the sum offered by Léon Poirier [director of the film L'Appel du silence on the life of Father de Foucauld] which should have covered the cost of his stay at El Abiodh Sidi Cheikh and added: "And now we have to start again from scratch, alone, without a comrade in combat. Enclosed is the letter from the Thibetan monk." The collages show, for the first one located below the title, various On the first page, below the title, the manuscript is illustrated with a collage from reproductions showing Millet's Angelus, the portrait of Breton at his work table by Max Ernst and Marie-Berthe Aurenche, an agonizing vampire, a priest in office and a female nude. The second collage is composed of a church in ruins whose vault is enhanced with colored pencils, and religious statues. The manuscript is followed by a Letter from the Thibetan Monk, illustrated with a reproduction of a Buddha. Alleged answer of a monk addressed to Gengenbach who would have informed him of his intentions to follow the footsteps of Father de Foucauld. The said monk enjoins him to flee Europe and its "rapacious people whose thoughts are impregnated with alcohol and blood, while taking the defense of the surrealists who are infinitely more sympathetic to him than all spiritual and temporal colonizers". "The torment of the surrealists, their uneasiness to be, their stupor to exist, this kind of metaphysical vertigo above the gaping hole of the life, their refusal of a civilization of lies, their desire to destroy by the fire and the blood, their madness, their need of an unreal elsewhere opposing to the ignoble real, all that denotes a thirst of ecstasy and contemplation that brings them closer to us. [...] But why do they persist in howling in vain and making vain clamors?" Encouraging the Surrealists to come and refresh themselves in the pure sources of initiation, the writer of this letter assures that he will remain in telepathic communication with his correspondent until he abandons his ghostly person as if he were dead skin. Provenance: André Breton (cat. 42 rue Fontaine, 2003, no. 2295). Enclosed: envelope to André Breton "aux bons soins d'Elyane" - Gengenbach's wife Elyane Bloch, written in red ink.