Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Self-portrait as The Little Prince hanged, on the Earth planet; in the background, a couple entwined on a bench, on a planet called Fox MGM » Ink and watercolor on paper | 27 x 21 cm | circa 1942/43. Estimate: €60,000-80,000. PARIS.- Among its Books and Manuscripts auction on June 4, Auction House Kâ-Mondo will feature important drawings by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (1900-1944) at Drouot, Paris. The main drawing, also the most emotional, shows a self-portrait of the writer as the Little Prince, hanged, expressing the pain of a breakup. Another drawing depicts ten preparatory sketches to The Little Prince, executed circa 1942. Self-portrait as The Little Prince hanged, on the Earth planet; in the background, a couple entwined on a bench, on a planet called « Fox MGM » is an original watercolor on paper that Antoine de Saint-Exupéry drew in New York in 1942 or early 1943. It is estimated between 60,000 and 80,000 Euros. Undoubtedly, this is the most upsetting of all Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s drawings. Indeed, the corpus of his drawings known to date offers only a very small number of compositions of such seriousness, and none shows such great despair, although many of them evoke serious themes. This astonishing composition illustrates the novelist’s despair as he takes the decision to leave New York and move away from his friend Silvia Hamilton. The main figure, in the foreground on the right, depicts the Earth, on which is a figure hanging from a gallows: it is Saint-Exupéry himself, represented in the costume and attitude of the Little Prince. At the top left of the composition, on another planet called « FOX MGM », a couple is depicted entwined on a bench. These two planets are part of a space studded with four stars, with the planet Saturn at the top. One could wonder about the choice of this planet, associated by poets with melancholy, and by astrologers, to rupture and renunciation. Saint-Exupéry went into exile in the United States in 1941. During his stay in New York, he had an intense romantic friendship with Silvia Hamilton. In…
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