Luce ou L’enfance d’une courtisane

Year: 1931
Author: Jacques de Lacretelle (1888 - 1985)
Artist: Marie Laurencin (1883 - 1956)
Publisher: M-P. Trémois

In 1922 the bookbinders Pierre-Ernest Trémois and his wife Madeleine decided to start their own publishing house. They specialized in deluxe and illustrated editions and worked together with famous authors and artists, like François Mauriac, Francis Carco, Jules Pascin and Louis Touchagues. In 1928 the publishing house M-P. Trémois launched a new collection: ‘La galerie des grandes courtisanes’. Each of the nine volumes portrays a legendary woman in world history (such as Aspasia and Fredegund). These books contain a romanticized story and some full-page black-and-white illustrations. Luce ou L’enfance d’une courtisane - written by de Lacretelle and illustrated with six lithographs by Laurencin - was published in March 1931. It is the ninth (and presumably the last) volume of the series. In December 1932 the publisher was declared bankrupt. The couple nonetheless reopened their publishing house in 1943, under the name Pierre Trémois. In 1953 they sold their collection title ‘Le livre de poche’ to Hachette.

Renowned portraits of young women

During the early thirties Jacques de Lacretelle, author of mostly psychological novels, wrote a couple of works in which courtesans played an important role. In Luce ou L’enfance d’une courtisane the main character accuses her lustful stepfather of sexual abuse in order to avoid a dull marriage with her stepbrother. The illustrations do not seem to follow the intrigue, they simply mirror the naïf imagination of the little Luce. The full-page black-and-white lithographs of Laurencin are filled with young women in beautiful dresses, adorned with pearl necklaces and flowers. The compelling dark eyes, almost invisible noses and somewhat melancholic look of these doll-like creatures recall Laurencin’s (self)portraits. With smooth lines she created a dreamy atmosphere that appears devoid of all vices. But she confidently illustrated some erotically charged novels and ballets and received international acclaim for her portraits of presumed lesbians.

Laurencin previously illustrated three other novels written by de Lacretelle. And although she did not immortalize a lot of men, La mort d’Hippolyte (1923) contains his portrait. Apparently she was quite satisfied, without consulting the author she took six of the printing proofs and gave them away. During the interwar period, illustrations became an integral part of her successful and productive career, despite the fact that the texts remained of secondary importance. She illustrated eighty books, made more than two thousand oil paintings, almost three hundred engravings, as well as watercolour paintings, set and costume designs for theatre and poems.  

Around 1900 she started working as a porcelain painter, followed some classes at the Académie Humbert and joined - as the only female painter - the group of fauvists and cubists working in the Bateau-Lavoir. Yet none of it prevented her from developing her own, recognizable style. In clear pastel tones she depicts her female and slightly melancholic fantasy world, that is ever so present in her poetry. Friend and colleague of multiple avant-garde artists, spending a lot of time on reading and writing letters, Laurencin felt most at ease among writers and poets.

Bibliographical description

Description: Luce ou L'enfance d'une courtisane / Jacques de Lacretelle ; ill. de Marie Laurencin. - Paris: M-P. Trémois, 1931. - 81 p. : ill. ; 20 cm. - (La galerie des grandes courtisanes ; 9)
Printer: R. Coulouma (Argenteuil)
Edition: 1000 copies
This copy: Nummer 715 of the 950 copies on wove paper 
Note: With autograph dedication from Jacques de Lacretelle to Anny Antoine and Louis Koopman ; Half leather binding
Bibliography: Monod 6645 ; Bénézit 8-327/329
Shelfmark: KW KOOPM C 408

References

• Douglas Alden, Jacques de Lacretelle: An Intellectual Itinerary. New Brunswick, NJ, Rutgers University Press, 1958
• Letters from Jacques Amaury Gaston de Lacretelle (1888-1985), KB The Hague : KW 77 H 1
• Camille Barjou, ‘Des femmes illustratrices dans l’entre-deux guerres : Marie Laurencin, Mariette Lydis et Hermine David’, in: Guillaume Dégé en Olivier Deloignon (ed.), De traits et d’esprit. Strasbourg, HEAR, 2013
• Pascal Fouché (ed.), ‘Trémois’, in: Chronologie de l’édition française de 1900 à nos jours [website], accessed 12 November 2024. 
• Flora Groult, Marie Laurencin. Paris, Mercure de France, 1987
• Daniel Marchesseau (ed.), Marie Laurencin 1883-1956. Paris, Hazan ; Musée Marmottan Monet, 2013
• ‘M.-P. Trémois’, in: Auroræ Libri, Livres rares et anciennes [website], accessed 12 November 2024