René Char autograph letter signed on the famous Surrealist prospectus of Artine

  
“POET SEEKING model for poems. René Char, 8ter, rue des Saules, Paris.”

The ad was taken seriously by some readers of the insert sheet (which mentioned René Char’s actual address), who showed up at the poet’s home on rue des Saules. Size: 16.5 x 21 cm. Original edition of a famous leaflet written to promote the work with André Breton and Paul Éluard, in the form of a deliberately ambiguous and dreamlike classified ad: “POET SEEKING model for poems.”

René Char wrote the preface in 1938 for Mario Prassinos’s first solo exhibition (drawings and gouaches) at the Billiet-Vorms gallery. From 1939 onward, Prassinos moved away from Surrealism. A volunteer during the war, he was wounded and received the Croix de Guerre. In 1942, he became acquainted with Raymond Queneau and collaborated with the NRF publishing house, for which he created book mock-ups, as well as a large number of NRF bindings well known to bibliophiles.

“I had completely forgotten yesterday, when I wrote to you, that I was not free on Monday, as I am dining with friends. Would you like to meet Wednesday evening at the same time?

”

Below: Gisèle Prassinos in 1935 reading her poems to the Surrealist group. From left to right: Mario Prassinos, André Breton, Henri Parisot, Paul Éluard, Benjamin Péret, René Char, Gisèle Prassinos.

Below: René Char by Henri Martinie, around 1925.