La liberté des mers

1960

Author: Pierre Reverdy (1889-1960) 
Artist: Georges Braque (1882-1963)
Published: [Paris], Maeght, 1959 [= 1960]

In 1910, poet Pierre Reverdy moved from Narbonne in the south of France to Paris, where he met Cubist painters Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque within a year's time. Like the Futurists and other modern artists, they didn't use traditional symbols for their paintings, but everyday objects such as a guitar or a bottle. Reverdy did the same thing with poetry: his poems may be compared to still-lifes, which are intimate and sometimes feverish, and in which objects like a window or a curtain are essential.

Braque and Reverdy produced various books together, including an edition of Les ardioses du toit (1918) and Une aventure méthodique (1950). On 5 April 1954 Reverdy finished a transcript of the poem La libterté des mers, and this strikingly large manuscript was reproduced actual size. The printing work with Braque's lithographs was finished five years later, on 15 June 1959. Braque was famous for his interest in the technical process of the graphic arts, and for the patience with which he awaited the best results. This majestic artist's book measuring almost 60 by 40 centimetres finally appeared in May 1960, a month before Reverdy died (on 17 June). It is named after Hugo de Groot's classic book on maritime law: Mare liberum ('The free sea').

Braque's lithographs are calm, full-page illustrations in pastel tints. On some text pages, decorations were applied in black and green, which are darker, with a more intense atmosphere, and which were printed using a special process by printer Mourlot frères. Braque's lithographs appear to limit themselves modestly to the background in order to emphasize the text, which is a combination of prose and poetry, based in part on poems that had been published previously.

But at some points in the book, Braque's images penetrate the text. The poem 'Mirage' (Rain), for instance, is illustrated with the drops of a rain shower, and whoever reads the lines 'Il ne pleut plus que sur les arbres et sur ma tête' will experience a disruptive virtual rain shower by the vertical lines that run through the letters and lines: 'It is only raining on the trees and on my head.'

Multi media presentation

See also the special multi media presentation of this book: 'Picasso, Braque & Reverdy'.

Bibliographical description:

Description:	La liberté des mers / Pierre Reverdy ; [lithographies originales de] Georges Braque. - [Paris]: Maeght, 1959 [= 1960]. - 164 p. : ill. ; 58 cm
Printer:	Mourlot frères
Edition:	250 copies
This copy:	Number 128 of 200 on Arches
Note:	Signed by author and artist
Bibliography:	Bénézit 2-745 ; Monod 9683
Shelf-mark:	Koopm E 38

References:

• Le centenaire de Pierre Reverdy (1889-1960). Angers, Presses de l'Université d'Angers, 1990 
• Étienne-Alain Hubert, Bibliographie des écrits de Pierre Reverdy. Paris, Minard, 1976
• Fernand Mourlot, Braque lithographe. Paris, Sauret, 1963  
• Jeniifer Mundy, Georges Braque, printmaker. London, Tate Gallery, 1993 
• Jean Schroeder, Pierre Reverdy. Boston, Twayne, 1981