LA MORT ET STA TUES

DOCUMENTING OF THE EDITIONS

Not all editions were available for direct consultation. The draft version (now held at the Musée Carnavalet) and the first edition (held in various libraries outside Germany) were therefore examined in digitised form.

1941-1946 Draft Version

Bibliographical reference

Cocteau, Jean (author) / Jahan, Pierre (photographer): Album de ‘La mort et les statues’. Paris: Les Éditions du Compas, 1941–1946. [Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris, PH331].

Type

Draft album comprising a portfolio of texts and photographic reproductions; preparatory version for the first edition of the book, featuring reproductions of photographs by Jahan, with printed and handwritten texts by Cocteau.

Dimensions

Album (h x w x d): 33.8 x 26.8 x 3 cm.

Page (h): 26.2 cm.

Pages

–

Material/Technique

Cardboard, letterpress, ink, photomechanical process, gelatine silver bromide print, storage stand, brown imitation leather cover.

Cover/Binding

Brown imitation leather with tribal motifs, 5 “pochettes” (book jackets), one of which is laminated with typographical text and image reproductions, a second entitled ‘Epreuves photo non reproduites’, a third with Cocteau’s first manuscript (seven sheets, glued to the front, on pink cardboard), a fourth entitled ‘Epreuves photos reproduites’, and a fifth entitled ‘Essais d’impression’ with front cover showing a laminated advertisement for the opening of Jahan’s studio and the third cover containing newspaper clippings and small laminated index cards.

Illustrations

Twenty-seven non-inventoried reproductions of photographs and nine photographs (nine of which have been mounted elsewhere).

Typography

–

Layout

–

Inscriptions/Notes

Back cover (pasted label, printed inscription): ‘La Mort et les Statues’; front cover (printed inscription, first sleeve): ‘La Mort / et les / Sta / tues / Texte / de Jean / Cocteau / Photos / de  Pierre / Jahan’; back of first cover (printed inscription): ‘La Mort et les Statues’; back of flyleaf (first folder, printed inscription): ‘Cet ouvrage / dont les / planches ont été re- / produites par Vigier / et Brunissen, d’après / les négatifs originaux / de Pierre Jahan, a été / achevé d’imprimer le / 30 Octobre 1946 par / Dominique Viglino, à / 450 exemplaires, numé- / rotés de 1 à 450, sur / Vélin pur fil de Lana, / plus 25 exemplaires / hors commerce, sur le / même papier, marqués / de A à Z, réservés aux / auteurs et à l’éditeur’.

Printing

–

Editor

René Zuber at Les Éditions du Compas (founded 1946 by René Zuber).

Place

Paris.

Production Date

1941–1946.

Print run

Unique.

Institution

Purchased by Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris in 1984, Inventory Number: PH331, https://www.parismuseescollections.paris.fr/fr/musee-carnavalet/oeuvres/album-la-mort-et-les-statues.

1946 First Edition

Bibliographical Reference

Cocteau, Jean (author) / Jahan, Pierre (photographer): La mort et les statues. Layout by Pierre Facheux. Photographical printing by Vigier and Brunissen. Printed by Dominique Viglino. Paris: Les Éditions du Compas, 1946.

Type

Book, photography (poetry) album.

Dimensions

Book (h x w x d): 33.7 x 25.7 x 1 cm.

Pages

Forty-eight unnumbered pages, with one leaf of Cocteau facsimile laid-in.

Material/Technique

Printing Process: Photomechanical reproduction; plates in heliogravure, produced by Vigier and Brunissen from Pierre Jahan’s original negatives. Photographic prints: Silver gelatin print. Paper: Wove paper (‘Vélin pur fil de Lana’). Title and Signature: Handwritten in pencil. Binding: Original card covers, initials printed in various colours. Protective case: Cloth chemise.

Cover/Binding

Cloth chemise, front cover with title ‘LA MORT ET LES STA TUES’ (red ‘L’ and brownish ‘M’ and green ‘S’), ‘Texte de Jean Cocteau’ and ‘Photos de Pierre Jahan’.

Illustrations

Twenty numbered black and white photographs, plates produced by Vigier and Brunissen from Jahan’s original negatives. All images are of uniform dimensions and printed on the recto side of the pages.

Typography

Printed text in Peignot typeface as ‘Écrit dans l’ombre’, with selected initial letters and numerals printed in three colours (red, brown, green).

Layout

Layout by Pierre Facheux, Cocteau’s text on the verso leaves is juxtaposed with Jahan’s photographs on the recto leaves, text is mostly printed in the lower corner of the verso page, near the binding.

Inscriptions/Notes

Preface de Jean Cocteau, note on p.4: ‘Cet ouvrage, dont les planches ont été reproduites par Vigier et Brunissen, d’après les négatifs originaux de Pierre Jahan, a été achevé d’imprimer le 30 octobre 1946 par Dominique Viglino, à 450 exemplaires, numérotés de 1 à 450, sur vélin pur fil de Lana, plus 25 exemplaires hors commerce, sur le même papier, marqués de A à Z, réservés aux auteurs et à l’éditeur’.

Printing

Plates produced by Vigier and Brunissen, printed by Dominique Viglino (Bourg-la-Reine?).

Editor

Published by René Zuber at Les Éditions du Compas (founded by René Zuber in 1946).

Place

Paris.

Production Date

1946.

Print run

475 copies issued: 450 numbered copies (nos. 1–450), and 25 hors commerce copies (lettered A to Y, reserved for the authors and publisher).

Institution

Three specimens:

One specimen was acquired by Centre Pompidou Paris, Inventory Number: AM 2007-112.

One specimen (copy no. 270), formerly owned by André Bernard and currently held by the University of Cambridge, bears the inscription: ‘To André Bernard this collection which will unfortunately be signed only by a follower […] Bien amicalement, Paris, March 1982, P. Jahan’. Contains loose leaf insert, which is a facsimile of handwritten dedication by Cocteau: ‘Ce livre a été compose pendant l’occupation. A une époque où commence la grande guerre du pluriel contre le singulier, le travail de Pierre Jahan apporte un exemple type de la beauté qu’un homme seul peut tirer d’un innombrable spectacle de laideur. C’est à ce titre que je le recommande et que je le souligne. Jean Cocteau, 1946.’, source: 44CAM_ALMA.

One specimen (copy no. 26), held by the National Gallery of Art Library, acquired through the David K. E. Bruce Fund (Library Rare N44.J249 C63 1946). It includes two copies of the extra leaf and a clipping of an article on Pierre Jahan from the Journal du Dimanche dated November 28, 2004, digitised October, 31 2018., https://library.nga.gov/permalink/01NGA_INST/1qqg09j/alma993946893504896.

1947 Extract of the Album as Journal Article

Bibliographical reference

Cocteau, Jean (author) / Jahan, Pierre (photographer): ‘La mort et les statues: Death and the Statues: Der Tod und die Statuen’. Graphis: The International Journal for Graphic and Applied Art 3.18, edited by Walter Amstutz and Walter Herdeg (1947): 71–73, 154.

Type

Journal article, extract of the album with translations in English and German, with editors’ note.

Journal

Graphis magazine, also entitled ‘The International Journal of Visual Communication’, was designed and published by Walter Herdeg from 1944–1985. Initially presenting work from Fine Artists, it later documented the evolution of Graphic Design.

Dimensions

Page (h x w): 28.7 cm × 22 cm.

Illustrations (h x w): A) 9 × 9 cm on pp. 71–72, B) 7.5 × 12 cm on p. 72, C) 19.5 × 18.5 cm on p. 73.

Note: These measurements are taken from an anthology copy held at the Library of Freie Universität Berlin. The dimensions of the original magazine issues may vary.

Pages

4

Material/Technique

–

Cover/Binding

–

Illustrations

Six photographs, presented in varying formats, appear in the following sequence: p. 71, no. 7 ‘Androgyne’ and no. 6 ‘Condorcet’; p. 72, no. 2 ‘Orphelin’, no. 13 ‘Gueules jambes bras’, and no. 5 ‘Centaure’; p. 73, no. 20 ‘Style’. The numbering corresponds to that of the first edition and has been retained in subsequent reprints. The photographs by Pierre Jahan are reduced in size and cropped. The image of the ‘Centaure’ (p. 72) is almost halved in comparison to the original.

Typography

Different typography to the book, plays with different font sizes.

Layout

The title is centred, with the indication ‘Texts: Jean Cocteau’ directly beneath, followed by ‘Photos: Pierre Jahan’ in close proximity. Below these, the French descriptive text of the editorial is juxtaposed with the English translation in two adjacent sections. On the first page of the article, two square photographs are printed side by side at the bottom of the page. The second page (recto) begins with two square illustrations at the top, followed by the French and English text in parallel columns; below this, a rectangular photograph appears. The next page (verso) features a larger-format photograph, beneath which the German text begins, continuing on p. 154. Beneath the photographs, Cocteau’s text (the only untranslated text) is written in smaller French.

Inscriptions/Notes

–

Binding

–

Printing

Graphis Press.

Editor

Walter Amstutz and Walter Herdeg.

Place

The title page states Zurich; the library catalogue names New York.

Production Date

1947.

Print Run

–

Institution

One copy of the article is in an anthology with many issues of Graphis in the Library Wirtschaftswissenschaften of Freie Universität Berlin

1974 Journal Article Issue 

Bibliographical Reference

Jahan, Pierre: ‘La mort et les statues, décembre 1941’. Gazette des Beaux-Arts fondée par Charles Blanc 6.83 (1974): 153–156.

Type

The journal article includes a quotation from Cocteau, illustrations of photographs by Pierre Jahan, accompanied by Cocteau’s legends, which are excerpts from his book La mort et les statues. The article also features a commentary by Jahan, detailing his discovery of the location where the sculptures were stored and destroyed, as well as the creation of La mort et les statues.

Journal

Art magazine, established by Charles Blanc in 1859; the article by Pierre Jahan follows a detailed preparatory article by Yvon Bizardel entitled ‘Les Statues fondues sous l’ Occupation (1940-1944)’, to which is appended a catalogue of vanished or destroyed sculptures entitled ‘Catalogue des statues enlevées par le Nazis a Paris, 1940-1944 et quelques images en conservant le souvenir’. This includes photographs of the statues prior to their abduction, many of which were later rediscovered and documented by Pierre Jahan, as well as another text entitled ‘Les statues parisiennes de grand homme’.

Dimensions

–

Pages

3

Material/Technique

–

Cover/Binding

The journal cover is photograph no. 15 ‘Rome capitule’ of La mort et les statues. The reproduction is accompanied by the following inscription on the cover: ‘Crocodiles en bronze du Bassin de la Nation (détail) par Georges Gardet. Ils ont été retirés et fondus pendant l’Occupation, conformément à la loi dite du 11.09.1941. Phot.Pierre Jahan’.

Illustrations

Six photographic reproductions excerpted from the book: p. 153: Cropped version of photograph no. 5, ‘Centaure’ (cropped at the lower edge compared to the first edition); p. 154: Cropped version of photograph no. 8, ‘L’Énigme’ (cropped at the lower edge compared to the first edition); p. 155: Cropped and enlarged version of photograph no. 2, ‘Orphelin’ (zoom effect applied); p. 156: Photographs no. 6, ‘Condorcet’, and no. 4, ‘Marat’, appear side by side, with a cropped version of photograph no. 17, ‘M. Thiers’, reproduced above them in a version that is laterally reversed and zoomed in, differing from the original edition; Cover: Cropped version of photograph no. 15, ‘Rome capitule’.

Typography

No special typography.

Layout

Photographs are the focus.

Inscriptions/Notes

‘Une ami peintre: Suzanne Tourte, qui habitait alors avenue Michel-Bizot, m’avait signalé que, dans une cour d’usine de son quartier, on entreposait les statues de bronze que les allemands avaient condamnées à être fondues! J’appris, par la suite, qu’ils voulaient, avec ce bronze, élever un monument colossal à la gloire du grand Reich victorieux: commande avait d’ailleurs été passée au sculpteur official d’Hitler: Arno Becker. Difficile de demander á l’occupant l’autorisation de photographier le massacre […] “mais, m’avait dit Suzanne Tourze, la porte de l’usine reste ouverte et la cour déserte jusqu’à 7 h du matin: autre problème : le couvre feu”. Je me glissais donc au petit jour, au milieu, de ces fantômes de bronze. J’utilisais mes dernières lampes “flash” du temps de paix: puis le premiers rayons du soleil. Je montrais peu après mes photos a Jean Cocteau: il me proposa d’écrire texte et légendes. A la libération, je retrouvais un ami: René Zuber, qui, lui aussi enthousiasmé par le sujet, se mua en éditeur occasionnel! Le livre (de luxe) tire à 250 exemplaires vit le jour au début de 1946; c’était une erreur, il n’eut, du fait de ce faible tirage, évidemment aucune audience. P.J.’ (p. 154).

Printing

–

Editor

Editor-in-Chief: Jean Adhémar. Management Committee: Sir John Pope-Hennessy, Xavier de Salas, Federico Zeri. Member of the Institut and Director: Daniel Wildenstein.

Place

Paris.

Production Date

March 1974.

Print Run

–

Institution

One copy owned by the Kunstbibliothek in Berlin.

1977 Second Edition

Bibliographical reference

Cocteau, Jean (author) / Jahan, Pierre (photographer): La mort et les statues. Photographic prints by Photogravure Goustard. Typography and printing realised by Hemmerlé Petit et Cie. Binding by André Brun. Paris: Édition Seghers (Robert Laffont), 1977.  

Type

Book, second edition.

Dimensions

Book (h x w x d): 27.5 cm x 21.5 cm x 1.1 cm

Page (h x w): 26 cm x 21 cm

Illustrations (h x w): A) 26 cm x 21 cm (pp. 4, 7, 15, 17, 19, 21, 25, 33, 38, 43, 47, 51, 53, 59); 23 cm x 21 cm (pp. 10, 27, 30, 34, 40, 55); C) 16.5 cm x 21 cm (pp. 23, 29, 36); D) 19.5 cm x 21 cm (p. 45); E) 18 cm x 21 cm (p. 49).

Pages

One front flyleaf, fifty-eight numbered pages, two rear flyleaves. The page numbering begins at fourteen and continues through to fifty-eight in the outer upper corner.

Material/Technique

Black and white illustrations, photographic prints (cliché) by Photogravure Goustard in Paris.

Cover/Binding

Binding by André Brun a Malesherbes: full cloth linen boards with the first illustrated book jacket. The cover features a detail from photograph no. 2 of the young ‘Orphelin’, surrounded by a bright lemon-yellow frame. The photograph partially overlaps this frame, with the head and left hand of the photographed statue of ‘Orphelin’ protruding from it. The photographed hand extends beyond the frame and is even cropped at the edge of the book cover. In the same yellow colour, there is text superimposed on the photograph: ‘Jean Cocteau. LA MORT ET LES STATUES. Photographies de Pierre Jahan. Seghers’ (The name ‘Jean Cocteau’ is written in larger type than ‘Pierre Jahan’).

Illustrations

Twenty-four illustrations of photographs by Pierre Jahan, including the first three previously unpublished photographs (‘Marat II’, ‘Style II’, ‘L’Ours et L’Aigle II’ as they were named in the third edition), followed by twenty photographs from the first edition and two additional unpublished photographs. The book jacket features no. 2 ‘Orphelin’. Jahan’s photographs always appear on the recto page. The photographs vary in format and are heavily cropped, often occupying the entire page, unlike in the first edition where they were shown in smaller formats.

Typography

Realised by Hemmerlé Peitit Et Cie a Paris: only black and white font, initial letter on the text of a page capitalised.

Layout

Note that Jahan’s photographs always appear on the recto page. The verse formatting and placement from the first edition are retained, with the verses positioned in the lower left corner of the verso pages.

Inscriptions/Notes

Note on p. 6: ‘La première edition de cet ouvrage, illustré d’après les négatifs originaux de Pierre Jahan, a été publiée, en 1946, par René Zuber, aux Éditions du Compas à Paris. 1977 Éditions Seghers’, note on p. 61: ‘CET OUVRAGE A ÉTÉ ACHEVÉ D’IMPRIMER LE 15 NOVEMBRE 1977 POUR LE COMPTE DES ÉDITIONS SEGHERS A PARIS. LA TYPOGRAHPIE ET L’IMPRESSION ONT ÉTÉ RÉALISÉES PAR L’IMPRIMERIE HEMMERLE, PETIT ET CIE A PARIS. LES ILLUSTRATIONS ONT ÉTÉ CLICHÉES PAR LA PHOTOGRAVURE GOUSTARD A PARIS. LA RELIURE A ÉTÉ ASSURÉE PAR ANDRÉ BRUN A MALESHERBES’.

+ preface of Jean Cocteau and postface of Pierre Jahan.

Printing

Hemmerlé Petit Et Cie in Paris.

Editor

Robert Laffont at Éditions Seghers.

Place

Paris.

Production Date

November 15, 1977.

Print Run

–

Institution

–

2008 Third Edition

Bibliographical Reference

Cocteau, Jean (author) / Jahan, Pierre (photographer): La mort et les statues. Preface by Pascal Ory. Postface by Pierre Jahan of the 1977 edition. Printed by Grafiche Marini Villorba. Published on the initiative of Olivier Lacroix. Paris: Les Éditions de l’Amateur, 2008.

Type

Book, third edition.

Dimensions

Book (h x w x d): 24.5 cm x 22.5 cm x 1.5 cm.

Page (h x w): 23.9 cm x 22 cm.

Illustrations (h x w): 19.8 cm x 19 cm.

Pages

Eighty-one pages. For the preface, page numbering is located at the upper inner edge of the pages; for the epilogue, it is positioned on the outer edges. In the main section, ‘La Mort et les Statues’, numbering begins at 1, with page numbers printed centrally at the top of the pages.

Material/Technique

Two different types of paper: coarser, rough-grained black paper and white or red laminated, plain paper.

Cover/Binding

Hardcover featuring an illustration from photograph no. 15, ‘Rome Capitule’, with the title in the lower corner. Below the title, the authors are named in red text (with ‘Jean Cocteau’ in his handwriting and ‘Pierre Jahan’ in regular print). Below this is the phrase ‘Préface de Pascal Ory’, followed by the publisher’s name.

Illustrations

Thirty-five black and white illustrations + the book jacket features ‘Rome Capitule’. The framing was taken from the first edition. Three photographs appear at the beginning, followed by the original sequence La Mort et les Statues, with a continuation of nine photographs, some of which have never been published before, such as ‘Chappe II and Alligators II’. All illustrations have the same dimensions.

Typography

The text, ‘La Mort et les Statues’, is set in grey capital letters, with no italics. Black colouring is used to emphasise the titles of the photographs. The title page features a red title (a shade reminiscent of the colour used in the first edition), with the subtitle of the preface also in red.

Layout

Inside front cover, inside back cover, and front and back endpapers are made of coarser black paper, as in the second edition. Cocteau’s handwritten note is now printed within the book. A whole red page accompanies Jahan’s text, using a shade of red reminiscent of that in the first edition. The verse formatting from the first edition is no longer adopted. Unlike in the first and second editions, Cocteau’s accompanying text is now placed at the bottom centre.

Inscriptions/Notes

Preface de Pascal Ory, Preface de Jean Cocteau of 1944, and Postface de Pierre Jahan of 1977, on half-title verso: ‘DOCUMENT DE COUVERTURE, “ROME CAPITULE” / PREMIÈRE ÉDITION PUBLIÉE EN 1946 AUX ÉDITIONS DU COMPAS, PARIS / SECONDE ÉDITION. AUGMENTÈE D’UNE POSTFACE DE PIERRE JAHAN, PUBLIÉE EN 1977 CHEZ SEGHERS, PARIS. LES ÉDITIONS DE L’AMATEUR POUR LA PRÉSENTE ÉDITION. 91 BIS. RUE DU CHERCHEMIDI. 75006 PARIS. 2008 / COMITÉ JEAN COCTEAU POUR LES TEXTES DE JEAN COCTEAU / OLIVIER LACROIX ­– AGENCE ROGER­-VIOLLET. PARIS. POUR LES PHOTOGRAPHIES DE PIERRE JAHAN. TOUS DROITS DE REPRODUCTION. D’ADAPTATION ET DE TRADUCTION RÉSERVÉS POUR TOUS PAYS’. On p. 86: information about the website www.lamortelesstatues.fr. On p. 87: ‘ACHEVÉ D’IMPRIMER LE 17 SETTEMBRE 2008 SUR LES PRESSES DE GRAFICHE MARINI VILLORBA, IMRPIMÈ EN ITALIE’.

Printing

Printed by Grafiche Marini Villorba in (Treviso) Italy.

Editor

Les Éditions de l’Amateur on the initiative of Pierre Jahan’s grand-son Olivier Lacroix, collaboration with photo agency Agence Roger-Viollet.

Place

Paris.

Production Date

September 17, 2008.

Print Run

–

Institution

–

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