Jacques Prévert - Original Drawing In Oil Pastels - 1957 - The Clash Between Good And Evil

Jacques Prévert — A splendid original drawing signed on the half-title page (and the facing page) of his collection Spectacle (published in 1951).

Paris, December 1957. Drawing with a dedicatory inscription poetically signed “Jacques Rêve-Vert” and executed in red, purple, blue, yellow, and black oil pastels on a double-page spread. Dimensions: 18.5 × 27 cm and 30.5 × 39 cm with its frame between two panes of glass (UV-protective and anti-glare) included. Autographed inscription: “To Servane, to her beautiful eyes.”

The signature “Jacques Rêve-Vert” is, of course, a poetic nod to the green ray, a famous optical phenomenon (a fleeting green flash at the top of the sun as it disappears over the horizon) and a symbol of wonder dear to Jules Verne and the Surrealists.

Jacques Prévert draws in colored pencils a confrontation between the devil (with his pitchfork) and a priest (with his cross) in a magical puppet theater. At the intersection of childhood, popular entertainment, and satire, the castelet—a small theater (made of wood, canvas, or cardboard used for puppet shows)—occupies a central place in Prévert’s world. In front of the small theater, a triple row of audience members can be seen. Prévert also repurposes the solid black areas of the drawing to sketch radiant suns on the front, creating a new scene with the silhouettes.

In 1957, Prévert presented his first major exhibition of collages at the Galerie Maeght in Paris. In his visual compositions from this period, anticlericalism is omnipresent: he frequently cut out engravings of priests, popes, or nuns to juxtapose them with devils, pagan figures, or animals, thereby mocking religious dogma.

Illustration: Jacques Prévert, circa 1956.