Description

ORIGINAL DRAWING AND SIGNED POEM PRESENTED TO FEMME RAYMONE FOR THE NEW YEAR 1952.
It depicts a flower, a bird and a large right hand with nails and a red bracelet.
At the foot of the flower and at the base of the hand are inscribed ".To the one I love"andRaymone".
An autograph poem occupies the upper right-hand quarter of the sheet:

"Poetry and love
the friendship of
health, joy...
And what else?

1952 - Yes, that we
will you give?

Go for it!

Blaise Cendrars

Originally from Switzerland, Blaise Cendrars joined the Foreign Legion at the outbreak of the First World War. Posted to the 3rd marching regiment of the 1st Foreign Legion, he was quickly recognised for his courage and promoted to legionnaire 1st class and then corporal on 12 June 1915. On 28 September, during the great Champagne offensive, he was seriously wounded in the right arm by a burst of machine-gun fire and had to have his elbow amputated. He was cited in the army order, awarded the Military Medal and the Croix de Guerre with 2 palms before being discharged.

Returning to Paris in 1916, he became a naturalised French citizen and published War in Luxembourg. The following year, on 26 October 1917, he met the actress Raymone Duchâteau and fell madly in love with her. Beautiful and courted, Raymone was a member of Louis Jouvet's troupe, playing Jean Giraudoux and Jean Anouilh, and acted in films with Marcel Carné, Julien Duvivier and Jean Renoir. She refused to marry Cendrars in 1937, but finally agreed to a "white" marriage in 1949. Throughout these years, Raymone was both the writer's muse and his confidante, as can be seen from their extensive correspondence, published in 2015 by Zoé.

A rare and moving document evoking Cendrars' essential themes: love, poetry and the tragedy of war.