Figures sketches
[c. 1925?].
Black ink on blue letterhead paper (180 x 140 mm), printed on the front.
Two sketches of figures in dancing poses, one of them wearing a kind of harem pants; a small sketch of a hand is also present to the left of one of the figures. These sketches are reproduced in the catalog “A. de Saint-Exupéry – Dessins” (Gallimard, 2006, no. 220 p. 153) in the section devoted to the “gallery of portraits”. However, the caption does not specify that Saint-Exupéry used the back of a tailor’s note (Simon Mouradian – Paris] addressed to him for a suit and knickers [golf trousers]; this for the modest sum of 2,100 francs [c. 2,500 euros].
We apologize for the imperfect translation generated by Deepl for the purposes of the show.
Survivors of these “hundreds of little characters, many of whom have forwarded a destiny that remains unknown to us […] found on loose sheets of paper, in the margins of his literary or scientific writings, on the back of invoices or schoolboy papers, on diaries…” (Delcroix, op. cit., p. 147), these two sketches on the back of a bill from the tailor Simon Mouradian could be dated based on this fragile witness: located on the border of the Armenian quarter, at 5 rue Saint-Marc in the 2nd arrondissement of Paris, the tailor Mouradian is also located in the neighborhood that the young Saint-Exupéry would briefly inhabit. In 1923, he occupied a furnished room at 22 rue Vivienne after getting engaged to Louise de Vilmorin, abandoning aviation at the express request of his future in-laws: a convenient address for someone who has just been employed as an accountant at Tuileries Boiron (52 rue Saint-Honoré), a job for which he must be very suitably dressed. In the fall, his sister Gabrielle got married while Antoine’s engagement to Louise de Vilmorin was broken off.
Did he keep this Parisian tailor’s address afterwards? No other invoices are known for this renowned craftsman, nor are any preserved costumes.
Former Frédéric d’Agay collection (mention available on the drawing and credit in the Gallimard catalog).
Delphine Delcroix & Alban Cerisier, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. Dessins, Aquarelles, pastels plumes et crayons, Paris, Gallimard, 2006; Librairie Forgeot, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Cat., 2023, no. 20 (reproduced).
