Tournant dangereux.

Librairie Stock, Paris, 1930

Limited edition of Maurice de Vlaminck’s autobiographical work, this being no. 133, from a total edition of 320.

Description: Publisher’s wrappers, titled in black. Quarto: 28.5 × 23 cm; pp. 202, [2]. . With initials, ornaments and 6 original lithographs by Vlaminck.

Condition: Binding in very good condition despite some minor creases. Internally quite fresh and clean, some foxing (as usual) to margins and edges. Overall a well-preserved copy.

Notes: Maurice de Vlaminck (1876–1958) was probably as great a writer as he was an artist. In his most important autobiographical work, Tournant Dangereux (Dangerous Corner), he describes his path and his relationship to art in evocative texts based on a car journey. His credo was: “If you are a painter, look only at yourself”. What counts for him is reality in its historical moment. For him, painting is the language of feelings. “I struck all the notes and translated all the feelings I could perceive into an orchestration of pure colours. I was a tender barbarian full of violence”. The French poet and art critic Guillaume Apollinaire once described Vlaminck as “one of the most talented painters of his generation. His simple and intense technique,” Apollinaire wrote, “allows the lines their full freedom, the volumes their full relief, and the colours their full clarity, their full beauty”. Vlaminck illustrated Tournant Dangereux with six beautiful lithographs characteristic of the Fauvist landscape painter.