Hand-Colored Etching from 'Le Sorcier des familles' – Signed and Inscribed with Holiday Greetings to Zizi Jeanmaire.

Etching by the French Surrealist painter, illustrator and designer, signed "LABISSE" in ink to lower right, and inscribed with holidays greetings to recto (from the French): "Happy New Year and don't forget the 3 very important things that were said yesterday / LABISSE".  From the 1957 deluxe edition of 'Le Sorcier des familles," illustratrating the life of the controversial French queen Isabeau of Bavaria, who was accused of incest, adultery and sorcery.   Etching heightened with gouache on paper. Sheet: 22.6 x 17.9 cm. ; Plate: 18.3 x 12.6 cm. Several creases and some handling smudges, otherwise in fine condition. 

After moving to Paris in 1927, the 22-year-old artist immediately became close to the elite of French culture, including representatives of the theater and literature. His friends Paul Eluard, Philippe Soupault, Robert Desnos, Jacques Prévert and Jean-Louis Barrault wrote poems, articles, essays and monographs about the artist. Labisse created costumes and scenery for 60 plays; in particular, he was the one who created decorations for the “Process” by Kafka, which was staged by great French director Jean-Louis Barrot.

Provenance: from the collection of Roland Petit and Zizi Jeanmaire. The celebrated French ballet dancer, actress and chanteuse Renée Marcelle "Zizi" Jeanmaire (1924 - 2020).  An exquisite, modernist ballerina who partnered such ballet greats as Rudolf Nureyev and Mikhail Baryshnikov, she also made Hollywood films with Bing Crosby (“Anything Goes,” 1956) and Danny Kaye (“Hans Christian Andersen,” 1952). But she was best-known as a flamboyant, seductive cabaret singer and dancer in the vibrant music halls of her native Paris in the post-World War II years. Famed for her gamine hair bob, scant black corset, diminutive torso but long legs, and her pink ostrich feather outfits, she became one of France’s best-loved artistes. Her stage appearances in London and the United States in 1949 transformed her into a global dance star. (21324)

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Autograph Document

Art/Sculpture

Classical Music

Dance

Art & Design

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