Le bestiaire, ou cortège d’Orphée, supplement: Les deux poèmes refusés (No. 4)

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Le bestiaire, ou cortège d’Orphée, supplement: Les deux poèmes refusés (No. 4)

Artist Raoul Dufy (French, 1877-1953)

Publisher Aux dépens d’un amateur

Printer l’Imprimerie Gauthier-Villars, Paris (M. Froment, pressman)

Author Guillaume Apollinaire (French, 1880-1918)

Date1931

DimensionsPortfolio: H: 13 7/16 in. (341 mm); W: 10 13/16 in. (275 mm); Depth: 3/8 in. (10 mm).
Cover: H: 12 15/16 in. (328 mm); W: 10 3/16 in. (258 mm).
Book (untrimmed): H: 13 1/4 in. (337 mm); W: 10 3/4 in. (273 mm).
Page (untrimmed): H: 13 1/8 in. (334 mm); W: 10 1/2 in. (267 mm).

MediumOriginal prints: 2 woodcuts. Text: letterpress in black with red. Paper: ivory japan.

ClassificationBooks

Credit LineGift of Molly and Walter Bareiss

Object number

1984.440

Not on View

Label Text“The Condor (Le condor),” in The Bestiary, or Procession of Orpheus, supplement: Two Rejected Poems, No. 4 (Le bestiaire, ou cortège d’Orphée, supplement: Les deux poèmes refusés ) Woodcut, published 1931 Text by Guillaume Apollinaire, French, 1880–1918 Gift of Molly and Walter Bareiss, 1984.440 Four poems from The Bestiary, or Procession of Orpheus were deemed a little too risqué to be included in the original publication in 1911, but were issued 20 years later, unbound, in two sets with Raoul Dufy’s original woodcut illustrations. “Le condor” involves an off-color pun on the bird’s name (con d’or) in reference to a bawdy French tale about an old man who marries a beautiful young woman and dreams the devil gives him a special ring to restore his virility: The Condor This bird is called the condor. May girls all have such a thing! Don’t you know why? There is no gold In Hans Carvel’s marvelous ring. The two species of condors—Andean and California—are native to South America and North America respectively. Vultures with wingspans as large as 9 ½ to10 feet, they are the largest flying land birds in the Western Hemisphere. Due to habitat loss, pollution, and poaching, the California Condor was down to a mere 22 wild birds in the 1980s. An unprecedented breeding program has increased their numbers, but they are still critically endangered with only about 200 birds in the wild.Published Referencescf. Ray, Gordon N., The Art of the French Illustrated Book, 1700 to 1914, vol. II, New York, 1982, no. 393

cf. Wheeler, Monroe, Modern Painters and Sculptors as Illustrators, New York, 1946, p. 101

cf. Garvey, Eleanor M., The Artist & the Book, 1860--1960, Boston, 1961, no. 91

cf. Johnson, Robert Flynn, Artists' Books in the Modern Era 1870--2000: the Reva and David Logan Collection of Illustrated Books, San Francisco, 2001, no. 15.

Exhibition HistoryToledo Museum of Art, Don't Feed the Books: Birds, Bugs, and Bestiaries Featuring the Molly and Walter Bareiss Collection of Modern Illustrated Books, April 13-July 1, 2001

Toledo Museum of Art, For the Birds, April 13-October 14, 2012.