Louis Marcoussis (1878-1941) was affiliated with the Cubist movement, but like many of his peers worked in a style that moved freely between Cubism and Surrealism. He was a close friend of the poet Guillaume Apollinaire, who was, as Apollinaire's biographer Oliver Bernard points out, 'the first writer to understand what the Cubists were up to'. His illustrations of Apollinaire's collected works, Alcools, were made after Apollinaire's death, a tribute to the memory of his friend. This image illustrates a silent farewell to a beautiful woman, whom the poet never met, but followed through the streets for two hours until she disappeared into a house.
Physical description
print on paper
Place of Origin
Paris, France (printed)
Date
1934 (printed)
Artist/maker
Marcoussis, Louis, born 1878 - died 1941 (artist)
Materials and Techniques
Etching and letterpress on paper
Dimensions
Height: 15.5 cm plate, Width: 9.7 cm plate, Height: 19.2 cm sheet, Width: 12.8 cm sheet
Descriptive line
Rosemunde. plate 21 from the suite of 34 illustrating 'Alcools' the collected poems of Guillaume Apollinaire. Etching. 1934
Bibliographic References (Citation, Note/Abstract, NAL no)
Solange Milet: Louis Marcoussis: Catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre gravé. Forlaget Cordelia, Copenhagen, 1991.
Timmers, Margaret (ed), Impressions of the Twentieth Century: Fine Art Prints from the V&A's Collection, London, V&A Publications, 2001
The full text of the entry is as follows:
"Louis Marcoussis (1878-1941)
Romemonde, 1934
Marcoussis was an inventive exponent of Cubism and his illustrations to Alcools are delivered in a variety of styles with affinities to Surrealism and Symbolism as well. Such freedom of appropriation was particularly suited to the nature of this work. Alcools was a collection of verse by Guillaume Apollinaire, who was, as his translator Oliver Bernard points out, 'the first writer to understand what the Cubists were up to'. Apollinaire's own writing relates to the principles of Cubism in its unconventional construction, and like the Cubists he 'collaged' together fragments of daily life - in his case scraps of conversation or visual and aural experience. He invented the tern Surrealism and his style anticipates that of some of the Dadaist artists whose concerns lay with undermining cat and bourgeois values. He was to become one of the most creative writers in Europe before his tragically early death in the influenza epidemic of 1918.
Louis Marcoussis had come to Paris from Poland in 1903. Apollinaire, who also had a Polish mother, had persuaded Ludwig Markus, as he then was, to change his name and adopt a more Latin identity, as he himself had done. They became life-long friends, and Marcoussis's illustrations to Alcools were a kind of posthumous tribute. Solange Milet, introducing the catalogue raisonné of Marcoussis's prints, notes how the friendship emerged through Marcoussis's response to the poems: 'In accordance with the modernity of the vocabulary and the suppression of punctuation in the poems, the plastic artist continued his research and conceived of forms which intensified the sense of the text. He adopted new ways of organizing the work on the page, resorting to superimposition and harmonic invention.' Rosemonde records Apollinaire's silent farewell to a beautiful woman whom he had followed for two hours, unseen by her, until she disappeared into a house. Smaller than life size, the raised palm of the illustration is monument and floating spectre; with the pattern of lips drawn out in the hand's fragile lines of fortune, the vulnerability yet strength of desire is simply but powerfully expressed."
Exhibition History
Circulation Department Travelling Exhibitions (United Kingdom 01/01/1968-31/12/1975)
Impressions of the 20th Century (Victoria and Albert Museum 01/01/2001-31/12/2001)
Production Note
The suite was printed by the artist on the press of the Académie Moderne, Paris, but was not published.
Attribution note: the number of the print within the suite, 21, is printed in letterpress beneath the image.
Materials
Paper; Ink
Techniques
Etching; Letterpress
Subjects depicted
Love; Hand, a; Desire; Parting; Rosemunde
Categories
Prints
Production Type
Proof
Collection code
PDP
