Descente aux enfers planche 2

Lithograph, 1961

Publisher : Nouveau Cercle parisien du Livre (Paris)

Printer : Mourlot (Paris)

Catalog : Vallier 171 Mourlot 78

Image dimensions : 27.00 cm. × 20.00 cm. (10.63 in. × 7.87 in.)

Paper dimensions : 32.00 cm. × 25.00 cm. (12.6 in. × 9.84 in.)

Handsigned by the artist in pencil
Certificate of authenticity
Very good condition

Japanese kozo paper

This lithograph is one of four created for the illustrated book Descente aux Enfers by Marcel Jouhandeau, released by the Nouveau Cercle parisien du livre in 1961.

In it, the novelist traces his journey back to Guéret, the town where he was born, through meetings with people he had known as a boy. A sense of dread grows as he explores this place that first fed his imagination. Moving between nostalgia, sadness and hope, the book mirrors the author's inner struggles, caught between his homosexuality and his Catholic upbringing. While God seems to haunt him, he is consumed by self-examination and questions of right and wrong: "If man does not understand hell, it is because he has not understood his own heart…".

At first glance, Braque's image may seem at odds with Jouhandeau's words. The artist draws us into a bird's-eye view in soft yet deeply saturated colors and earthy shades. Leafy, flowery and winged shapes fill the composition, as though we were flying over an imaginary landscape. The airy poetry of the print stands in contrast to its dramatic title, yet it reveals all the complexity of the spirit of the book it accompanies.

Ref : LCD2805