Il est difficile, mais il est gai, de s’imaginer de pierre…

Name: Il est difficile, mais il est gai, de s'imaginer de pierre...
SKU: 28894
Author: Georges Bataille

S.l.n.d. [circa 1949].

32 lines on 1 leaf (320 x 385 mm) of folded Arches paper, written in blue ink.

Autograph manuscript signed, unpublished. The text is justified and written by Bataille on a folded bifolium of Arches laid paper, recto and verso. Facing the second page, a large pencil portrait of the author on vellum skin (23 x 30 cm) is mounted. It is the work of Robert Lapoujade, who in 1949 held an exhibition of writers' portraits at the Galerie Chardin in Paris. The event, organized by Éditions du Seuil, was arranged in three parts: 29 portraits of contemporary figures (Bachelard, Bataille, Breton, Claudel, Éluard, Jouve, Mauriac, Parain, Ponge, Sartre, Supervielle, and others), eleven illustrations for Louis Pauwels's Les Voies de petite communication (Seuil, 1949), and various other works. Each portrait, executed in silverpoint on parchment, was accompanied by an autograph meditation by the writer on the theme of the face; each author spoke with candor and sincerity about their encounter with the artist, their feelings on seeing their own portrait, or the image they held of themselves.

For this portrait of Bataille, drawn before the text was written, Lapoujade sketched only the barest outlines of the face, concentrating on the intense expression of the eyes and mouth. It was this portrait that inspired Bataille’s dense and important text: “Il est merveilleux, il est risible d’être mort (…) Il est doux, il est puéril, il est voluptueux d’être mort : mort avalée comme une hostie, je ferme les yeux pour mieux rire et chanceler plus véritablement (…) je ne me dérobe pas à moi-même pour accorder mon existence à celle des autres, ou plutôt l’accord qui se fait vient de ma traîtrise avouée. Je me fais mais pour un temps trop court et bien comiquement le démon de la discorde, implacablement haï mais au fond (le plus souvent, il faut rire, ou il donne un malaise qui confine à l’éternuement) : je parle et je suis entendu criant à la figure de Jean ce que Jean n’aurait jamais dû entendre, le secret qui réduit le cou à un noeud d’étranglement.”

The whole was intended for a publication, Figures vives, which never appeared. The portrait of Breton — without the manuscript, now lost — as well as that of Paul Éluard, were part of the Destribats collection (V, 2022, no. 161 and III, 2021, no. 103).

Provenance: formerly in the Jean Hugues collection; Aristophil collection (47, April 2022, no. 168).

#28894

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