MALLARME (Stéphane). L'Après-midi d'un faune. Eglogue. Paris - Lot 115

MALLARME (Stéphane). L'Après-midi d'un faune. Eglogue. Paris, Alphonse Derenne, 1876. Plaquette in-4, leaves, Japan felt cover, pink and black silk cords attached to a price tag (Publisher's paperback). In pink half-calf folder with corners, slipcase (Honnelaitre). ORIGINAL EDITION, illustrated in the first edition with 4 lovely woodcut drawings by Edouard Manet. This poem, composed from 1865 onwards, was rejected by the theater the following year, and suffered another setback when Mallarmé asked François Coppée to publish it in the Parnasse contemporain. The poet turned to publisher Alphonse Derenne and asked his friend Edouard Manet to illustrate it. Manet's first-edition illustration consists of 4 handsome woodcuts: a bookplate on japon depicting a water lily imitated from a Hokusai manga, pasted on the title page; a frontispiece sketching a seated faun against a landscape background, printed as a loose proof on japon pelure; a vignette at the head of the first verses, showing three nymphs stripped naked among the reeds; and a cul-delampe depicting a bunch of grapes. depicting a bunch of grapes. The bookplate and frontispiece have been lightly enhanced by the painter with a delicate pink wash. Manet had complained about the cost of coloring, which he considered appalling, and decided to do it himself (letter to Mallarmé, 1875). "From the ex-libris, to the frontispiece and finial, a few nervously drawn reeds, bent in all directions, are enough for Manet's pencil to situate, with the same power of abstraction exercised on a repertoire of aquatic images, the place in its ideality. [...] The collaboration between Manet and Mallarmé cannot be overstated. In modern times, it was the first development of large-scale illustrated pictures, overcoming prejudices and granting creative freedom. It opened the way to new expression". (François Chapon, Le Peintre et le livre, pp. 20-24). Edition of 195 copies, this one on Hollande, without number. Copy with an autograph letter from Mallarmé (2 pp. 1/2 in-16) to the publisher Alphonse Lemerre (1876), signed. Beautiful letter in which he says that Manet is delighted to become one of those at Passage Choiseul, "He wishes to see you and that you see at the same time what he is completing for the exhibition and, in a great hurry, does not leave the studio, as long as it is daylight. So come tomorrow and see us together at the studio, which is next door". Copy in perfect condition, complete with silk cords and 15-franc price tag. A MASTERPIECE OF THE SYMBOLIST PERIOD AND ONE OF THE FIRST PAINTER'S BOOKS.