À Sade

Name: À Sade
SKU: 29728
Author: Hans Bellmer

[Paris, Alain Mazo], 1961.

1 vol. (290 x 380 mm) of 10 engravings. In sheets, in the publisher's chemise and slipcase.

First printing of this superb suite of ten explicit engravings in burin and drypoint, resulting from the superimposition of two copper plates and printed in two colors. The edition is limited to 55 copies in black, with an additional 20 author's suites in two colors, numbered in pencil and printed separately on vélin d'Arches. Offered here is one of these 20 rare color suites. All the engravings are signed and numbered by Bellmer (copy III/XX).

Since the early 1930s, Hans Bellmer had taken an interest in the work of Sade: “I intend to devote myself intensively to the work of Sade, through several projects illustrating Les 120 journées de Sodome and La Philosophie dans le boudoir,” projects that would remain unfinished. Bellmer nonetheless produced drawings that he would later use for his two great suites in homage to Sade: À Sade (1961) and Petit traité de morale (1968).

In both works, the prints result from the superimposition of two engraved copper plates. For the color copies, the two plates are printed in varying tints from plate to plate; “each in a different color — combining the images through condensation in the Freudian sense, thereby creating entirely different engravings despite the repetition of the same plates” (Flahutez).

Pierre Dourthe, Bellmer, pp. 224–238; Bibliothèque Filipacchi, Hans Bellmer, 16–17; Dutel 942; Eros invaincu 117; Collection Gérard Nordman, II, no. 76; Hans Bellmer. Anatomie du désir, Paris, Centre Pompidou, 2006, no. 216, p. 21.

#29728

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