CHIRICO (Giorgio de) - APOLLINAIRE (Guillaume). - Lot 93

CHIRICO (Giorgio de) - APOLLINAIRE (Guillaume). Calligrammes. Paris: Librairie Gallimard, 1930. - In-4, 330 x 248: 269 pp, (3 ff. last blank), illustrated cover. In sheets, in publisher's illustrated hardback folder. Coron, De Goya à Max Ernst, 2018, nº 40. Rare first illustrated edition, printed in only 131 copies, illustrated with 68 original lithographs in black in the text (two of which are repeated) by Giorgio de CHIRICO (1888-1978). This is undoubtedly the finest illustrated book published by Gallimard. Who better to illustrate it than Giorgio de Chirico? Apollinaire was the artist's first and most fervent supporter, from the very first years of his arrival in Paris in 1911. On October 30, 1913, a few months after his exhibition at the Salon d'Automne in 1912, Apollinaire wrote: "The art of this young painter is a cerebral interior art that bears no relation to that of the painters who have emerged in recent years. It comes neither from Matisse nor Picasso, nor from the Impressionists. This originality is new enough to merit mention. The initiative for this deluxe edition came from André Malraux, appointed artistic director of the NRF publishing house in October 1928. Printed in a much larger format than the original edition, it is above all a tribute from the painter to his departed friend. The poet and the artist had met shortly after the Salon d'Automne in 1912. "Apollinaire, who visited him in his studio, ranked Chirico among the four most important painters of his generation, along with Picasso, Braque and Derain. He even declared him 'the most astonishing'", recalls Antoine Coron. The poet devoted numerous articles to Chirico's work, and dedicated one of the poems in Calligrammes to him: Océan de Terre (Ocean of Earth). Although this illustrated edition initially provoked some criticism, its success eventually won over the public. "On the whole, the illustration composes a coherent system of new images which, instead of reproducing the painter's usual iconography, proposes a new one, which would itself become, forty years later, a source of inspiration for him. In this way, Calligrammes is not only a beautiful engraved book, a tomb composed in memory of the poet who undoubtedly meant the most to Chirico, it is also a milestone in the history of his painting" (Antoine Coron). The typography is also remarkable. It is the work of Maurice Darantière, who recomposed all the calligrams without cliché. One of 88 copies on China paper, signed by Chirico in the justification, this being one of 25 hors commerce on this paper (no. XVIII), enriched with a suite of illustrations on China paper. A very well preserved copy, as issued. Only the dust jacket is damaged, with the hinges cracked and the corners dulled. The boards show some freckling and traces of rubbing. The slipcase is missing.