André BRETON (1896-1966). Autograph manuscript signed, Autodidactes dits "naïfs", New York 1941-1942; 3pages in-4. Interesting art-critical text on the Naïfs, in its original, partly unpublished version. This manuscript, abundantly crossed out and corrected, is in three parts, the last of which alone was collected in Le Surréalisme et la Peinture (New York, Brentano's, 1945). The first two leaves relate to Sidney Janis's book They taught themselves (New York, 1942), and his collection of self-taught American primitive painters. The first text, bearing the title in red pen, begins as follows: "In the twentieth century, living artistic consciousness, evolving in tandem with the need for knowledge, is experiencing four main poles of attraction, under the influence of four singular modes of expression: - 1° the sculpture of primitive peoples (Africa gradually giving way to Oceania and ancient America), - 2° the drawings of children under ten, - 3° the drawings and paintings of mediums in trance, - 4° the artistic production of the insane (mainly schizophrenics)"... There are also the self-taught painters, "pure of all the taint of artistic education", who are "a source of freshness and frankness", and in the emotion Breton feels, he finds the "magnetic thread" that runs through the canvases of Douanier Rousseau, the "Ideal Palace" of Facteur Cheval and the creations of Hirschfield.... The second page is entitled They taught themselves, and is dated "New York September 14, 1941". This is a second version of the preceding text; translated into English, it served as the exhibition presentation for Sidney Janis' collection and was used on the dust jacket of Janis' book; the French version is unpublished (a translation from the English is published in Œuvres complètes, t.IV, p.1186). Breton concludes: "This is, to my knowledge, the first time that an exceptional gift for observation and deduction, of an entirely scientific nature, has been combined with an admirable sense of both artistic and poetic quality. The latter has never ceased to express itself, moreover, in the infallible choice which presides over the assembly of the paintings in his collection, all of those which intellectually have made an event or mark an important stage in some respect in the direction of mystery and fire". The last leaf, entitled Preface, signed and dated at the end "New York January 19, 1942", gives, with important erasures and corrections, the text collected in Le Surréalisme et la Peinture. In it, Breton evokes Douanier Rousseau, whom he likens to Georges Courteline and Alfred Jarry: "Rousseau has the insignificant power, if not to wither almost all painting behind him, at least to make appear derisory the artistic means that are taught and whose codification tends to establish a wholly formal perfection on the ruins of inspiration". He concludes by praising the work of Sidney Janis, "who lends self-taught American painters his fervent support, has the privilege of living in the intimacy of the masterpiece which, unbeknownst to them, commands the line of their production: I mean Rousseau's Dream. [...] Just as Cimabue's Virgin once walked through Rome, it may one day be appropriate, among works of the same sincerity and foresight, to processionally walk her through the streets. Former Jacques Millot collection (Bibliothèque du Professeur Millot, June 15, 1991, no. 28, 1°).