Jean Cocteau - Paul Et Sa Soeur - Original Drawing For Les Enfants Terribles - 1935

Jean Cocteau (1889-1963) - Original drawing, 1935. Study for the album Soixante dessins pour les Enfants terribles published in 1935 by Grasset. This drawing is a sketch for the Paul et sa sœur montent au ciel des tragédies.

Original ink drawing on fine paper. Size: 29.6 x 20.6 cm. Mounting trace on recto, tiny missing upper left corner. An elegant marie-louise having framed the drawing is enclosed with it.

Workshop stamp. Drawing listed in the Guedras archives, and accompanied by a certificate of authenticity from Annie Guedras, an expert on Jean Cocteau's work.

In an ethereal, dramatic atmosphere, the silhouettes of Paul and Élisabeth rise above the clutter of their bedroom, the "Temple", to reach an absolute, fatal elsewhere.

Moving drawing.

"It [the bedroom] drifted through spaces. Paul and Elisabeth settled at the summit of tragedies. They inhabited that void where souls are consumed without leaving ashes. [...]

The bodies interlocked, knotted, searching for an upward way out. In this motionless ascent, Paul and his sister became a single two-headed beast, a monster of solitude rising toward its own zenith."

(Jean Cocteau, Les Enfants terribles)