Marie Laurencin (French, 1883-1956)


Poèmes de Sapho, Compagnie Française des Arts Graphiques, Paris, 1950 The volume containing the set of 23 etchings, on Auvergne à la main paper, with text in French, number 26 from the edition of 160, with two additional suites of the first state of the 23 etchings and the second suite of the final second state, on Lana teinté paper, the full sheets, loose (as issued), the first image in each suite inscribed in pencil 1er etat and 2eme etat, the two volumes with acetate wrappers and both encased in a blue paper-covered box; together with one pencil drawing of a woman with birds, on wove paper, a pen and ink drawing of two female heads, on a folded piece of laid paper, signed in ink and dedicated to Comtesse Edith de Beaumont, and a letter to her from the artist, in good conditionVolumes 225 x 150mm. (2 framed)Folio 240 x 160 x 30mm.
|Marie Laurencin was inspired by the Ancient Greek poetess Sappho, celebrated for the sensuality of her tone in her spiritual and lyrical poems. Only fragments of her poems are known today, apart from Ode to Aphrodite, her only remaining complete poem.Toward you beautiful girls my thoughts never alterSappho, "Fragment 41", in Edgar Lobel and Denys Page (eds.), Poetarum Lesbiorum Fragmenta, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1955