Henri SAUGUET (1901-1989). 67 L.A.S., 1976-1984,... - Lot 127 - Ader

Lot 127
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2500 - 3000 EUR
Henri SAUGUET (1901-1989). 67 L.A.S., 1976-1984,... - Lot 127 - Ader
Henri SAUGUET (1901-1989). 67 L.A.S., 1976-1984, to Castor Seibel in Bonn; 122 pages in various formats, envelopes. Beautiful and rich correspondence from the composer over nearly ten years. These letters testify to Sauguet's culture, his humor, his sometimes biting wit, and his modesty as well, which accompanies the confidences he may make about his intimacý. It is obviously about his art, but also about his friends, past and present, his readings, his meetings, his travels, his joys and his sorrows. Friendshiṕ, complicitý, culture, intellectual honestý and moral rectitude are expressed on every page. The letters are written from Paris, or from his house in Coutras where he liked to retire. The correspondence begins on 20 October 1976, on the occasion of the death of his friend Jean Denoël, whose funeral he recalls: 'The mysterious discretion he practised all his life also enveloped him that day. He will have been the "éminence grise" of French literature for over half a century. Who will be the persuasive advocate of young writers to Gallimard and who will help them in their beginnings? "... He returns to this on November 16, also relating the performance in Brussels of his Cantata "on a poem by Maurice Carême composed to celebrate the centenary of Queen Elizabeth of Belgium"... On November 30, he evokes the death of André Malraux which "made a great splash, commensurate with the character who fascinated by the strangenesś of his behaviour and his sybil-like utterances in the vapours of strong alcohol! "; then Julien Green: "He is secretive and mysterious: yet he tells himself at length and minutely in his Journal... It is true that in the solitude of the study a writer speaks more easily to his paper than in societý. Be that as it may, I like his almost ecclesiastical allure (not the Jouhandeau kind) and his subdued airs, which are often belied by an ardour of the gaze and a half-tone smile, which can go as far as a sly grin. He is intimidating, as are all shy people. He too lives a lot through his eyes: "Since my early childhood I have put my body in my eyes (and even more in my ears: but it is not the same meaning and the same domain). I have always considered that what I saw, at the time when my eyes perceived it, was mine"... About Marcel Jouhandeau, with whom Castor Seibel maintained an enormous correspondence: "I think that Marcel Jouhandeau's death has struck you right in the heart! I learned of it yesterday morning, on the train that was taking me from Paris to Coutras, by unfolding my newspaper while sitting in the carriage as I was leaving Paris! He had been dead since Saturday evening and I had not known anything about it! [...] As I don't know to whom I can express my sorrow, my emotion, my feelings of great admiration - since I hardly know this Marc who had become his son - I am addressing these lines to you, dear Castor, because you were an essential friend to him! And you had never met physically. But what a meeting of minds and souls. I embrace you wholeheartedly, sadly, but gloriously, because Marcel Jouhandeau's death puts his work at the summit of French literature, it will shine with all its open fire, with its diamond style, sparkling and sovereign"... (April 10, 1979). He reacts to images of Giorgio Morandi sent to him by Castor: "They conceal a secret that makes them close and distant at the same time. Matter? Thought? An eye like no other, in any case" (25 January 1977). On Dunoyer de Segonzac and André́ Derain: "I'm going to try to go and visit this exhibition of D. de Segonzac of which you speak. I knew him and his wife, the actress Thérèse Dorny. He was a lord. I agree with you about Derain. He was obsessed́ with the idea of 'making a museum' and his talent suffered, despite his genius!" (April 3, 1978). On Picasso: "It seems that all the other Picassos that are in museums and in the world are ALL fakes. Only those that Picasso had kept are real! And none of them are for sale! Only to be seen. But their exhibition brings more money than their sale. This is what is called art for all" (November 20, 1979)... Reflections on art and passion: "It is necessary that poetry, painting, music, the friendshiṕ of all those around you, all the art you love and serve be a powerful and regenerating antidote to the torments caused by passion: this one, accepted, lived, must increase your vital forces and not decrease them" (January 16, 1979). On his conception of music, concerning his cantata Et l'oiseau a vu tout ça: "There is above all in the music of this work a feeling of human compassion and of super-life (as there is a sur-realism). That is to say, like the bird that witnesses impassively the drama that is played out around the tree on which it continues
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