Null COCTEAU (Jean). 
Set of 4 autograph letters signed "Jean" with small sketch…
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COCTEAU (Jean). Set of 4 autograph letters signed "Jean" with small sketch of a star, [addressed TO JEAN MARAIS]. 1951 and n.d. All one p. in-4; occasional cracks at folds. - Villa Santo-Sospir in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat [Alpes-Maritimes], February 12, 1951. "Mon bon ange, aujourd'hui c'est le soleil, qui te ressemble. Doudou [his companion Édouard Dermit] is naked on the terrace and I'm painting, painting, painting. I TRY TO AVOID PAINTING-PAINTING, TO WHICH I HAVE NO RIGHT - AND TO PAINT ALL THE SAME - AND IT'S DIFFICULT, BECAUSE, IN THIS AREA, PICASSO HAS TAKEN ALL THE SPACE. I have a lot of notes for my play, which is Bacchus, but he's changed a lot. The character is caught between Rome and Luther. If I succeed, it will be the drama of freedom. I'll need time. I can't write such serious stuff with a running pen. So, YOUR IDEA OF TAKING OVER THE [INFERNAL] MACHINE WOULD BE MY DREAM... I leave BRITANNICUS alone for a while because it's all done in my head... Don't jump into the air, I'm thinking of Danièle Delorme for Junie. It's important to contradict all tragic conformism. Orphée is a success... " - Villa Santo Sospir, "mardi gras" February 7, 1951. "My Jeannot, it's raining on masks. It's raining on the plaster battles. You can imagine the plaster mud covering Nice. This morning (Wednesday) the weather is superb - it's always the same the day after Carnival. I haven't told you the RENOIR story. In the end I had it taken... so that it wouldn't disappear. It's an admirable landscape from the best period. The guy, furious at only selling it for a million, demanded a deadline. He'd double the price after a week. Francine was in Santo Sospir. I didn't have the money - otherwise, I'd buy it on the off-chance. It's worth double or triple. Mine is a tiny canvas, a portrait of her son. It looks like a pearl. I'm on the lookout. If [GEORGES] HUGNET has found you another from the Vollard collection, he'll phone me... Mon Jeannot, the Calmanns tell me that our volume [Jean Cocteau's Jean Marais] will be published on March 1st... Give our Moulouk [Jean Marais's dog] a kiss..." - In the Air France plane". S.d. "My Jeannot, all these deaths of friends, men and animals, have overwhelmed me, I admit. I know it's normal to die, but IT WOULD BE NICE TO DIE ALL TOGETHER AND NOT TO SEE THOSE WE LOVE FALLING OVER THE EDGE AND DISAPPEARING IN THE SEA. Moulouk [Jean Marais's dog] never leaves my side. So I imagine him in such force that I come to believe he's there, looking for you from place to place. I'm going to try painting and retyping my room to distract myself from this nightmare. I'D LIKE TO READ YOU THE PLAY AS SOON AS I GET BACK TO PARIS AND ASK YOUR ADVICE. IF YOU CAN'T PLAY IT, I CAN ONLY THINK OF ONE ACTOR YOU'D CHOOSE: GERARD PHILIPPE. But I wonder if fate won't arrange things and if the impossible won't happen. Besides, between the two of us things are made of one soul, with another a thousand difficulties arise and I have a lump in my throat that won't go away... I've spoken to [JEAN] VILAR about it, only I don't have the whole last act yet... ". - S.l., September 5, 1951. "Jeannot chéri, I think Lulu [Lulu Watier, impresario and friend of Jean Marais] misunderstood my intention. My intention was, after your telephone and hers, to save you from the taxman at all costs. As WHAT'S MINE IS YOURS, this sale of shares wouldn't change anything, except that it... gave you a sum that I couldn't raise without this system. As "capital", Milly [his house in Milly-la-Forêt] represents nothing to you, since you wouldn't sell your rising share to a stranger. It represents wisdom...". Jean Cocteau goes on to talk, among other things, about his friend Francine Weisweiller, Sicily and Taormina in particular: "... Her 'panorama' remains, along with a few postcards of rose-crowned young men who are the grandparents of today's youth, a youth ashamed of it [an allusion to photographs of male nudes taken in Sicily at the end of the 19th century by Wilhelm von Glöden]...".

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COCTEAU (Jean). Set of 4 autograph letters signed "Jean" with small sketch of a star, [addressed TO JEAN MARAIS]. 1951 and n.d. All one p. in-4; occasional cracks at folds. - Villa Santo-Sospir in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat [Alpes-Maritimes], February 12, 1951. "Mon bon ange, aujourd'hui c'est le soleil, qui te ressemble. Doudou [his companion Édouard Dermit] is naked on the terrace and I'm painting, painting, painting. I TRY TO AVOID PAINTING-PAINTING, TO WHICH I HAVE NO RIGHT - AND TO PAINT ALL THE SAME - AND IT'S DIFFICULT, BECAUSE, IN THIS AREA, PICASSO HAS TAKEN ALL THE SPACE. I have a lot of notes for my play, which is Bacchus, but he's changed a lot. The character is caught between Rome and Luther. If I succeed, it will be the drama of freedom. I'll need time. I can't write such serious stuff with a running pen. So, YOUR IDEA OF TAKING OVER THE [INFERNAL] MACHINE WOULD BE MY DREAM... I leave BRITANNICUS alone for a while because it's all done in my head... Don't jump into the air, I'm thinking of Danièle Delorme for Junie. It's important to contradict all tragic conformism. Orphée is a success... " - Villa Santo Sospir, "mardi gras" February 7, 1951. "My Jeannot, it's raining on masks. It's raining on the plaster battles. You can imagine the plaster mud covering Nice. This morning (Wednesday) the weather is superb - it's always the same the day after Carnival. I haven't told you the RENOIR story. In the end I had it taken... so that it wouldn't disappear. It's an admirable landscape from the best period. The guy, furious at only selling it for a million, demanded a deadline. He'd double the price after a week. Francine was in Santo Sospir. I didn't have the money - otherwise, I'd buy it on the off-chance. It's worth double or triple. Mine is a tiny canvas, a portrait of her son. It looks like a pearl. I'm on the lookout. If [GEORGES] HUGNET has found you another from the Vollard collection, he'll phone me... Mon Jeannot, the Calmanns tell me that our volume [Jean Cocteau's Jean Marais] will be published on March 1st... Give our Moulouk [Jean Marais's dog] a kiss..." - In the Air France plane". S.d. "My Jeannot, all these deaths of friends, men and animals, have overwhelmed me, I admit. I know it's normal to die, but IT WOULD BE NICE TO DIE ALL TOGETHER AND NOT TO SEE THOSE WE LOVE FALLING OVER THE EDGE AND DISAPPEARING IN THE SEA. Moulouk [Jean Marais's dog] never leaves my side. So I imagine him in such force that I come to believe he's there, looking for you from place to place. I'm going to try painting and retyping my room to distract myself from this nightmare. I'D LIKE TO READ YOU THE PLAY AS SOON AS I GET BACK TO PARIS AND ASK YOUR ADVICE. IF YOU CAN'T PLAY IT, I CAN ONLY THINK OF ONE ACTOR YOU'D CHOOSE: GERARD PHILIPPE. But I wonder if fate won't arrange things and if the impossible won't happen. Besides, between the two of us things are made of one soul, with another a thousand difficulties arise and I have a lump in my throat that won't go away... I've spoken to [JEAN] VILAR about it, only I don't have the whole last act yet... ". - S.l., September 5, 1951. "Jeannot chéri, I think Lulu [Lulu Watier, impresario and friend of Jean Marais] misunderstood my intention. My intention was, after your telephone and hers, to save you from the taxman at all costs. As WHAT'S MINE IS YOURS, this sale of shares wouldn't change anything, except that it... gave you a sum that I couldn't raise without this system. As "capital", Milly [his house in Milly-la-Forêt] represents nothing to you, since you wouldn't sell your rising share to a stranger. It represents wisdom...". Jean Cocteau goes on to talk, among other things, about his friend Francine Weisweiller, Sicily and Taormina in particular: "... Her 'panorama' remains, along with a few postcards of rose-crowned young men who are the grandparents of today's youth, a youth ashamed of it [an allusion to photographs of male nudes taken in Sicily at the end of the 19th century by Wilhelm von Glöden]...".

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JEAN COCTEAU (1885-1963) Ensemble de seize lettres et trois télégrammes rédigés par Jean Cocteau adressés à Raymond Moretti. Provenance Atelier de l'artiste Collection Marie-France Moretti Bibliographie [Cocteau / Moretti] Nucera Louis, L'âge du verseau. Texte inédit de Louis Nucéra. Avec 24 lithographies de Jean Cocteau Raymond Moretti réalisées conjointement en 1962-1963, Paris Art et Recherche, 1973 (édition Originale). Lettre autographe et dessin original Paris, 22 janvier 1962, 1 page in-4 ornée d’un dessin au crayon bleu, enveloppe jointe. « Mon cher Raymond, Paris est un bloc de glace côté ? Et côté coeur. La Victorine était un paradis et je ne pourrai jamais t’exprimer ma reconnaissance fraternelle. Je rêve de t’associer encore à mes besognes et de te le rendre dans la mesure du possible. Je t’embrasse. Salut aux copains. Jean J’espère que Triquenot est venu et qu’il a emporté nos maquettes. Renseigne moi pour l’affiche. » Lettre autographe 1 page in-4, enveloppe jointe. « Mon cher Moretti, Je voudrais savoir quel jour nous pouvons continuer notre travail. On me rapporte que la télévision annonçait que j’invente, dans mon atelier, une grande toile, assisté par moretti. Voilà comment ces types écoutentce qu’on leur raconte en détail. Le mieux sera donc de les laisser tomber et de continuer en silence. (il est vrai que le fils médecin possède notre déclaration et que je l’ai encore enregistré pour ? En signalant l’erreur de la télévision). Je vous embrasse. Jean Cocteau » Lettre autographe St Jean Cap-Ferrat, 30 août 1962, 1 page in-8 avec enveloppe jointe. « J’ai grande curiosité de savoir où nous en sommes. Fais moi signe. Comme le haut doit être sec on pourrait s’y mettre. Actuellement ton rôle consiste à faire passer nos graphismes dans l’espace la profondeur et le relief. Salut. Jean » Lettre autographe St Jean Cap-Ferrat, 15 août 1962, 1 page in-8 avec enveloppe jointe. « Mon cher Moretti, Je veux encore te remercier, dans ma vie très dure de m’avoir donné ce plaisir de notre travail à la Victorine. Il m’arrive rarement de me permettre une si bonne détente. Continue à rendre notre toile profonde et mystérieuse. J’aurai de l’impatience à connaître le visage neuf, avec sa bouche en forme de cri. Je t’embrasse. Jean Cocteau » Lettre autographe et dessin original Paris, 1 octobre 1962. 1 page in-4 orné d’un dessin à l’encre, enveloppe jointe. « Mon très cher Moretti, mon périple se passe dans la fièvre de bronchite et je rêve de voir notre toile, après la Suisse (? Ou ?) je rentre à Paris et rejoindrai vite la côte. Travaille bien. Je t’embrasse. Jean. ». Lettre autographe et dessin original Paris, 13 octobre 1962. 1 page in-8 orné d’un dessin à l’encre, enveloppe jointe. « Grande impatience de voir la tête du bas et le ciel du haut. Je soigne ma bronchite pour être d’attaque. Notre toile étant vivante et faisant ce qu’elle veut, inutile de s’inquiéter. Je t’embrasasse. Jean ». Lettre autographe Paris, le 22 octobre 1962.1 page in-8, enveloppe jointe. « Nous unirons bientôt nos microbes. Je peux être sur la côte les premiers jours de novembre. Ne déménage pas la grande toile. Je veux avoir la surprise du poisson et de la tête blanche. Je t’embrasse. Jean ». Lettre dessin original sur papier Milly, le 1er novembre 1962, 1 page in-8 orné d’une figure féminine au feutre rouge, enveloppe jointe. « Patience j’arrive à la fin du mois. Jean ». Lettre autographe et dessin original Paris, le 9 novembre 1962, 1 page in-8 ornée d’un dessin au stylo rehaussé aux crayons de couleur, enveloppe jointe. « Je fais mes devoirs comme au collège, après je serai « libre ».J’arriverai vers le 25. A Saint Jean. Je t’embrasse. Jean Cocteau ». Lettre autographe et dessin original Milly, le 13 novembre 1962, 1 page in-4 orné d’un dessin au crayon vert, enveloppe jointe. « Cher Moretti. A bientôt - Paris m’éreinte. Tu es la sagesse même de vivre dans ton bien. Je rêve de la minute où je pourrai endosser ma blouse blanche et « opérer ». Je t’embrasse. Jean. Je compte rester tout Décembre et Janvier. » Lettre autographe St Jean Cap-Ferrat, page in-8, enveloppe jointe. « Mon très cher Moretti, le docteur me demande 3 ou 4 jours de chambre ce qui ne m’empêche pas d’être à la Victorine. Je n’ai qu’à fermer les yeux pour y être par le plus rapide de tous les véhicules : la pensée. Hier j’ai terminé les deux portes du Cap d’Ail. Grosse fabrique. En revenant à Santo Sospir je me suis ? Avec Brive - bourde énorme - ce n’est pas 17 ans que j’avais à Marseille mais 14 ou 15. Dis le lui pour qu’il corrige pour les textes. Merci, merci encore pour ton aide à Radio Nice. Je tremble de t’infliger la besogne des vitres mais tu es le seul au monde à pouvoir le faire. Je t’embrasse sous la lettre de Gui. Jean »