Description

FIRST EDITION Limited to 500 copies signed by the author.
ONE OF THE FIRST 20 COPIES ON WHATMAN PAPER containing AN ORIGINAL DESIGN Followed by 30 copies on whatman paper, 100 copies on Japon impérial, 150 copies on Hollande, and 200 copies on vellum.
Large original drawing (210 x 270 mm) in Indian ink depicting a Gemini with swollen veins with this caption: "Maison de Santé - Légers maux - 1928 Noël saint-Cloud".

Superb edition reproducing 31 drawings by Cocteau executed during his first opium detoxification cure at the Saint-Cloud nursing home, from 9 March to the end of April 1925. The one-page note, reproducing the author's handwriting, explains Cocteau's approach:

"I avoided writing a lot and drew. Otherwise my right hand would go crazy from 4am to midnight. I kept it busy, informing a young doctor on duty about my symptoms. It would be wrong to look for the slightest trace of delirium in these pictures. When I suffer too much I hide. [...] Opium balances the nerves. It makes some people corky and others heavy. It gave me the contact I lack with the things of the earth. I regret that our machine, which is too weak, cannot cope with such an improvement. ".

Cocteau was only off drugs for a few months, returning in 1928 to St Cloud, where he wrote and drew. Opium, Diary of a detox. Cocteau's drawings from the 1920s have become rare, and those on the theme of drugs are particularly sought-after.

Nice copy.