265 - William Stanley Hayter (British, 1901–1988)

William Stanley Hayter (British, 1901–1988) Anthropophagic Landscape. 1937. Engraving and soft varnish. 350 x 185 [438 x 268 mm]. Black and Moorhead 106. A very fine print on Montval laid paper, in an undescribed state (4th of 5), with figures added in the upper left but before the signature and date engraved in the lower right, annotated “Essai,” titled, signed, and dated in pencil. Dedication along the top margin in pencil: “For Georges Hugnet [...] 07/28/37.” A few light foxing spots. Full margins. Final edition of 30 proofs. AABM stamp (Lugt 3075). Georges Hugnet (1906–1974) was a French poet, writer, critic, graphic designer, bookbinder, and filmmaker, and a major figure in the Dada and Surrealist movements. He collaborated with Hayter in the 1930s on Surrealist artist’s books. "It is undoubtedly in the realm of the book—conceived both as an object for reading and as an 'object' in its own right—that he produced his most original works: through his choice of illustrators (Max Jacob, Marcoussis, Miró, Dalí, Duchamp, Tanguy, Bellmer, Arp, Picasso, Beaudin...), the art of page layout, and the unique bindings created in his studio on Rue de Buci, under the banner of the ‘Book-Object’." (Centre Pompidou, exhibition *Pérégrinations de Georges Hugnet*, 1978). This is one of five prints commissioned by Ambroise Vollard to accompany Cervantes’s text *Numancia*. Vollard’s death brought the project to a premature end. The apocalyptic subject was intended to illustrate Scene IV, Act 4, in which the starving Numantines decide to eat their Roman prisoners. The subject, like the print *Combat*, also alludes to the Spanish Civil War.