Reverdy, Pierre

Cravates de chanvre.  Paris: Éditions Nord-Sud, (1922)



8vo (9 x 6 1/4 in.; 228 x 158 mm).  3 fine etchings on zinc by Pablo Picasso,  printed at Les Presses Eugène Delâtre, text printed by Paul Birault, original wrappers printed in red and black bound in; some very light browning at edges.  Half glazed calf, marbled boards, top edges gilt, marbled endpapers, by Randeynes; rubbing to spine and extremities.

Cramer 11; Artists' Books of the Modern Era 45

8vo (9 x 6 1/4 in.; 228 x 158 mm). 3 fine etchings on zinc by Pablo Picasso, printed at Les Presses Eugène Delâtre, text printed by Paul Birault, original wrappers printed in red and black bound in; some very light browning at edges. Half glazed calf, marbled boards, top edges gilt, marbled endpapers, by Randeynes; rubbing to spine and extremities.
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Copy 14 of 15 numbered copies on imperial japan, initialed by Reverdy (of a whole edition of 132).  Only the first 30 copies (15 on japan and 15 on Van Gelder Hollande) include all three etchings.  The remainder of the copies include only the frontispiece portrait.

Although Picasso had known Reverdy since the days of the Bateau-Lavoir, this was his first collaboration with the poet and editor.  The title refers to the hangman's noose. The frontispiece is the artist's celebrated portrait of Reverdy, seated in an armchair, reading.  It is one of the greatest of Picasso's many portraits of writers, composers and fellow painters.  He "created ... a sensitive and introspective portrait of the reclusive poet, absorbed in a book.  Picasso's refined classical style, which reduced Reverdy's image to the essential elements of his character, was clearly an inspiration to the portrait drawings of David Hockney later in the century" (Artists' Books in the Modern Era).

The other two etchings found in the deluxe copies were not originally created for this book.  According to Cramer, "the first etching, À la fontaine, is part of the series 'Trois femmes à la fontaine' on which Picasso worked in the summer of 1921 at Fontainebleau .... The second etching, Les Baigneuses recalls the 1920 drawings of women bathing at Juan-les-Pins ... as well as the sketches of bathers done on April 29 and May 1, 1921."