L’effroi la joie

Joseph Sima and René Char did not meet until later in life, but their encounter would prove to be of a great significance. They were introduced by the critic and publisher Yvonne Zeros, who invited Sima in 1963 to illustrate one of Char’s poems. Sima, born in 1891 in Bohemia (later Czechoslovakia) and based in Paris since the 1920s, developed a highly distinctive visual language shaped by both Czech and French modernism. As a co-founder of the literary magazine Le grand jeu, he harboured a lasting interest in literature. He illustrated several books by Czech and French authors, but poetry was still relatively uncharted territory in his work.

Upon Zervos’ request, Sima himself selected one of Char’s poems. The first result of their collaboration was Nous tombons (1963), a unique manuscript accompanied by watercolours, gouaches and graphite drawings by Sima. Yet it was not until the publication of Char’s Le chien de cœur (1969) that Sima discovered a new poetic world.

In dialogue

Their final collaboration, L’effroi la joie, was completed only a few weeks before Sima’s death in 1971. The book features fourteen etchings, which vary in size, figurativeness and style, and are intended to accompany the rhythm of Char’s poems. In a letter sent to Char during the preparation of the book, Sima expressed his desire to trace the meaning of the poems through the etchings. In doing so, he did not view his illustrations as decoration, but as an extension of the poet’s words.

L’effroi la joie was published towards the end of Jean Hugues’s career as a publisher. After this, he would publish only two more books, both by René Char. For Sima, too, the project marked a closing chapter: L’effroi la joie was his last artist’s book to be published during his lifetime.

The correspondence surrounding the project reveals Sima’s enthusiasm for collaborating with a poet he greatly admired. That admiration was mutual. Two years after Sima’s death, Char dedicated the text Se rencontrer paysage avec Joseph Sima (1973) to him. Instead of writing a conventional tribute, Char, entirely in his own style, commemorated Sima through fragments of landscape. This text, accompanied by one of Sima’s etchings, testifies to the enduring appreciation of their collaboration.

Bibliographical description

Description: L’effroi la joie / René Char ; [illustrations de] Joseph Sima. - Paris : Jean Hugues, 1971. - 24 pages non numérotées ; 29 cm. 
Printer: Imprimerie Union (text), Atelier Georges Leblanc (etchings) 
Edition: 90 copies on paper d’Auvergne du Moulin Richard de Bas 
This copy: Number 79 
Note: Signed by the author and the artist
Shelfmark: KW KOOPM A10351

References

• Philippe Castellin, René Char, traces. Paris, Les Éditeurs Évident, 1989. 
• René Char, Œuvres complètes. Paris, Gallimard, 1983. 
• Robert W. Greene, ‘René Char, Poet of Contradiction’ in The Modern Language Review, vol. 66, no. 4, 1971, pp. 802–9. 
• Jean Hugues, libraire-éditeur : Le Point Cardinal. Paris, Cendres, 2004. 
• Joseph Sima : 1891-1971, œuvre graphique et amitiés littéraires. L. D. Germain : 1870-1936, reliures. Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, 1979. 
• Rosemary Lancaster, La poésie éclatée de René Char. Amsterdam, Rodopi, 1994. 
• René Char : faire du chemin avec… (Marie-Claude Char, red.). Paris, Gallimard, 1992. 
• René Char : manuscrits enluminés par des peintres du XXe siècle. Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, 1980.