33 - BRETON (André) - GIACOMETTI (Alberto).

BRETON (André) - GIACOMETTI (Alberto). L'Air de l'eau. Paris: Éditions “Cahiers d'art,” [1934]. — In-4, 252 x 220: (20 ff.), 4 plates, printed cover. Paperback. First edition of this poetry collection by André Breton, printed in a run of 345 copies plus a few non-commercial copies, on December 5, 1934. One of the first 5 copies on pearlescent Japanese paper, signed by the author on the colophon and enhanced with 4 original intaglio engravings by Alberto GIACOMETTI (1901–1966) included as inserts: The Cat, The Salt Fairy, The Hand, and The Straw Horse. Only the first 45 copies contain these engravings, which are among the very first the artist ever produced. On August 14, 1934, André Breton married the painter Jacqueline Lamba, whom he had met a few months earlier, with Paul Éluard and Alberto Giacometti serving as witnesses. Between June and October, he composed the 14 poems that make up this collection and celebrate this love. He then asked his friend Giacometti to illustrate the book. The artist replied with this letter dated September 17, 1934: “I am reading the poems, which are for me an entirely new world, full of images, and your proposal fascinates me too much for me not to try to create the engravings. I think we need to find images that, while corresponding to a specific project, can also apply as broadly as possible to the collection as a whole, and that do not illustrate a project that is too singular. In the latter case, we merely limit the image of the poem: we isolate it and remove it from the whole, solely because it is more immediately visual” (website: andrebreton.fr). Copy No. 1, in which Breton copied at the top the eighth poem from the collection, beginning with: The sparkling eyes of the little Babylonian, too white, With a stone of the same color set in her navel, When it opens like a window onto a nocturnal garden The hand of Jacqueline X How pernicious you are deep within that hand Eyes from another time, forever moist… The author added at the end: “Moret, September 2, 1934. ” This copy is enhanced by a leaf bearing Breton’s signature and the words “Jade la source” in printed letters that have been cut out and pasted, as well as the autograph manuscript of the 14 poems in the collection, each written in green ink on an in-4 leaf, including 6 on pink paper, one on gray paper, one on red paper, and 6 on the reverse side of a white sheet bearing the letterhead of the “L’Orvanne & Robinson” hotel-restaurant in Moret-sur-Loing. The copy is in perfect condition.