DELAUNAY, Sonia (illus.); RIMBAUD, Arthur.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

Les Illuminations. First edition, signed by Delaunay, number 2 of 90 copies. This is the complete suite of pochoir plates by Delaunay, executed in gouache, illustrating nine of Rimbaud's Illuminations: Matinée d'Ivresse, Fleurs, Marine, Nocturne Vulgaire, Métropolitain, Les Ponts, Fête d'Hiver, Mouvement, and Barbare.The pochoir medium, which involves hand-stencilling the design, using separate stencils for each colour applied, is complex and labour-intensive and the manual element of the process means that no two impressions are the same, producing results that lie somewhere between prints and original paintings. The use of gouache, rather than printing ink, means that the colours remain exceptionally strong and vibrant. Nine of the prints also bear hand-drawn pencil markings, enhancing the uniqueness of the works. The publisher Jacques Damase, responsible for the striking typography throughout, notes in the introduction Delaunay's deep admiration for Rimbaud's revolutionary spirit, and the link between colour and poetry. A pioneering use of colour links Rimbaud and Delaunay: colour is a recurring theme in Illuminations, and Delaunay was one of the most innovative colourists of the twentieth-century, developing the colour theory of Simultanism with her husband, Robert.

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