Henri Matisse, René Char

Le Poème Pulvérisé (The Scattered Poem), signed by Matisse and Char.

• Henri Matisse (French, 1869-
• René Char (French, 1907-1988).
• Paris: Fontaine, 1947.
• Quarto.
• One of the 65 deluxe copies on Johannot laid paper, this being xxxiii.
• Linocut frontispiece, signed in pencil by Matisse.
• Text in French.
• Signed by René Char in blue in ink on the justification, partially uncut.
• Original printed wrappers.

René Char approached Matisse in the spring of 1946 to create a frontispiece for this collection of poetry. The publisher initially misunderstood the nature of the illustration, but Matisse insisted that it would be an original engraving, not a reproduction: 'my intention is to show René Char more than a simple tribute.'

The woman depicted by Matisse is that of Lucienne Bernard, widow of the poet Roger Bernard, to whom the author pays homage in the eleventh poem of the collection, entitled 'Affres, détonation, silence.'