1929 MARIA LANI Artist's Muse 52 PLATES CHAGALL MATISSE LÉGER MAN RAY COCTEAU ++

Description: MARIA LANI. Text by JEAN COCTEAU, Max Rambo and Waldemar George. ILLUSTRATED with 52 PLATES of DRAWINGS, PAINTINGS, SCULPTURES, and a Frontispiece Photograph, of MARIA LANI, the remarkable and unique ARTIST'S MUSE (and some would say Scam Artist) of the late 1920s. The artworks were by many important artists of the period. PARIS: Editions des Quatre Chemins, 1929. First edition. French Text. Limited Edition. This is number 78 of 525 copies, likely a "Hors Commerce" copy with "H C" handwritten beside the ink stamped number 78. Tan wrappers, French folds, burgundy and black titling to the front cover, 9x11 inches (23x28 cm). Pagination: [2] Half-Title and Limitation Page, [6] Frontispiece Plate and Introductory Pages, 7-21 Text Essays, 51 numbered PLATES each printed on its own leaf, [2] List of Plates and Colophon Page. The 51 artist plates are of artworks (paintings, drawings, sculptures) of Maria Lani by 51 noted artists of the period. The artists include Bonnard, Braque, Chagall, Chirico, Cocteau, Matisse, Léger, Man Ray, Marval, Orloff, Max Jacob, Dufy, Rouault, Soutine, among many others. A page at the rear lists all the 51 artists. CONDITION: The covers are toned, have some edgewear including some small closed tears, a few creases from handling, and most notably a well-worn spine that is now taped (not an uncommon feature as the issue is known for its weak glue binding). Internally, the pages are lightly toned, there is an approximately 1/4 inch piece of binding tape along the gutter edge of the blank backside of each plate, and an offset mirror image along the gutter margin of the facing plates - this is how the plates were mounted and is normal to all copies; there is just a bit of foxing found on the blank backsides and on a couple plates, the binding is shaky and is split between each plate, the plates could easily come out with a tug but currently all plates but one are still holding on by the sewn binding (plate 32 is loose but laid-in its proper place). Despite the flaws this is one of the nicer copies I have seen because the plates, which are the heart of this book, are all present, bright, clean, and clear. About MARIA LANI (from Vanity Fair website): ******Maria Lani Was the Muse of Modernist Masters - Then She Vanished Without a Trace Ninety years ago, an enigmatic actress and model swept through Paris, transfixing Cocteau, Matisse, Chagall, and dozens more of the day’s visual artists. When she disappeared from the public eye, a myth emerged in her wake. Was she really who she said she was?****** (Please see the full Vanity Fair article by typing into the search bar: "Maria Lani Was the Muse of Modernist Masters Then She Vanished Without a Trace".) About MARIA LANI (from Wikipedia): Maria Lani (nee Maria Jeleniewicz), b.1895 d.1954, was an aspiring film actress and artists' model. In the late 1920s she was portrayed in paintings and sculpture by over fifty artists, including Bonnard, Chagall, Cocteau, Derain, Matisse, Rouault, and Suzanne Valadon. Maria Lani was born in Kolno, Poland, and grew up in Częstochowa also in Poland. She went to Paris in the spring of 1928 and falsely proclaimed herself to be a silent film star who had worked in Berlin. She claimed to be working on a film which required multiple portraits as part of the plot. She befriended Jean Cocteau who was fascinated by her and enthusiastically endorsed the project. With the support and artistic connections of Jean Cocteau, fifty-nine artists made portraits of her. A limited edition book about Lani and the portraits was published in 1929 by Éditions des Quatre Chemins, Paris with essays by Cocteau, Mac Ramo, and Waldemar George. It included fifty-one plates of reproductions of the artworks of Maria Lani. The film never materialized, but the portraits were exhibited as a group in Europe and the United States, and Lani kept them in her possession. In 1941 she moved to New York City, where she worked at the Stage Door Canteen, a recreational center for servicemen. She returned to Paris after the war, where she died in 1954 and was buried in a pauper's grave.******

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End Time: 2024-11-05T01:01:16.000Z

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