Paul ELUARD (1895-1952). Autograph manuscript, [Picasso, 1951]; 9 1/4 pages on 10 leaves in-4 (one leaf torn and taped back). Draft of a lecture on Pablo Picasso (delivered in London on October 18, 1951; an important fragment was published, under the title "Le plus jeune artiste du monde" ("The World's Youngest Artist"), on the front page of the Lettres françaises issue of October 25, 1951, with the headline "Picasso a 70 ans" ("Picasso is 70"). This manuscript, written in midnight-blue ink or blue pen, features numerous important erasures and corrections. "I can easily imagine that we have just published the one hundred and seventy-first thousandth article and the one thousand two hundredth book on Picasso, that we are on our millionth photograph and that his name has become a household word [...] We have never spoken of a living painter as we speak of Picasso. And yet, this 70-year-old man can be considered the youngest artist of his time. Begun more than half a century ago, his work continues to be the most vivid in the world, surprising, outraging and, fortunately, arousing admiration and enthusiasm. [...] The truth on which Picasso relies is his own youth. [...] And today, we are not commemorating Picasso, we are inaugurating him. His strength will be great, his genius will blossom. Tomorrow will not fulfill the promise of yesterday, but the promise of tomorrow. This perpetual child, this new Faust and this new Don Juan promises to seduce, to amaze [...] What is Picasso doing today? A goat. He has used branches for its ribs, two cooking pots for its udders and bicycle handlebars for its horns. And the goat began to live. And Picasso was born"... Etc. Former Jacques Millot collection (Bibliothèque du Professeur Millot, June 15, 1991, no. 66).