Paul Claudel / Buraglio - Cinq Grandes Odes - 1990

Five Great Odes, followed by a Processional to salute the new century, by Paul Claudel

Limited edition, numbered copy

The five odes Claudel wrote during the years 1900, The Muses, The Spirit and Water, Magnificat, The Muse who is Grace and The Closed House, were gathered in a volume in 1910 and followed by the Processional to greet the new century. They rank among the high points of twentieth‑century French poetry. The poet deploys the great verse he forged from the psalms and his reading of Rimbaud, in a religious inspiration nourished by his 1886 conversion. The poetic chant becomes a celebration of all creation, in an ample and incantatory language, breaking with the regular verse inherited from symbolism. This 1990 edition appears in the “Lettres françaises” collection of the Imprimerie nationale. The text is presented here by Claudel expert Marius-François Guyard, and accompanied by illustrations by painter Pierre Buraglio.

Paul Claudel (1868-1955), brother of the sculptor Camille, pursued a parallel career as a diplomat, consul in China, ambassador to Japan, the United States, then Belgium, and produced a substantial body of work, theatrical and poetic: Partage de midi, Le Soulier de satin, Connaissance de l’Est. He was elected to the Académie française in 1946.

Pierre Buraglio, born in 1939, is associated with the Supports/Surfaces movement. His work, which blends painting and found objects, canvases, glass, and fragments of glass, is found in numerous French public collections, notably those of the Centre Pompidou.

Paris, Imprimerie nationale, collection “Lettres françaises,” 1990; in-8 (22.2 x 16.1 cm); 270 pages. Full burgundy leather binding, top edge gilt. Very fine external and internal condition.