138 - Henri MICHAUX. [The Bird That Fades Away]. Undated [1942]. Signed original charcoal drawing (23 x 17.8 cm), framed.

Henri MICHAUX. [The Bird That Fades Away]. Undated [1942]. Signed original charcoal drawing (23 x 17.8 cm), framed. A superb original charcoal drawing used to illustrate the collection *Apparitions*. This is the first full-page illustration in the book (p. 8), accompanying the poem “The Bird That Fades Away.” This one appears in the light of day, in the whitest light of day. Bird. It flaps its wings, it takes flight. It flaps its wings, it fades away. I t flaps its wings, it reappears. It lands. And then it is gone. With a single flap, it has vanished into the white space. Such is my familiar bird, the bird that comes to populate the sky above my little courtyard. Populate? We can see how… But I remain where I am, gazing at it, fascinated by its appearance, fascinated by its disappearance. The drawing is said to have been by Maurice Saillet. It was exhibited at the Martin Bodmer Foundation in 2015 (catalog *Henri Michaux & Zao Wou-Ki in the Empire of Signs*, no. 35, and reproduced on p. 38).