Rare 5.5 x 3.5 postcard of the famed Le Palais Idéal in Hauterives, built by French postman Ferdinand Cheval over the course of thirty-plus years, signed on the reverse in ink by the great Cubist painter Pablo Picasso, Surrealist poet Paul Éluard, model and Surrealist artist Nusch Éluard, their daughter Cécile Eluard, and photographer Dora Maar. Addressed to the important Dada/Surrealist photographer Man Ray at his studio, "40 rue Denfert Rochereau, Paris." Annotated along the bottom edge, "Vaste Horizons, Mougins (Alpes Mmes)," and postmarked at Mougins, Alpes-Maritimes on May 18, 1937. In fine condition.
An absolutely outstanding postcard rife with artistic associations, which were recently explored in the Museu Picasso de Barcelona's exhibition 'Pablo Picasso, Paul Eluard: A Sublime Friendship.' Picasso had been introduced to Dora Maar through Paul Éluard in 1936, and they soon became lovers and companions. All of these figures were politically and artistically aligned, and were often the subjects of one another's works. According to the museum: 'Nusch became a topic of aesthetic research and the protagonist of many portraits by Picasso, above all between 1936 and 1941. In those years, the friendship and reciprocal admiration and emulation between Picasso and Eluard led them to share their holidays together for three summers in a row in the hotel Vaste Horizon de Mougins, along with other friends. There, Picasso produced various portraits of Nusch, of Maar and of Eluard’s daughter, Cécile, as well as a cryptic portrait of Paul Eluard dressed up as Arlésienne, known as Arlesiana amamantando un gato.'
In addition to her role as the subject of several paintings by Picasso, Dora Maar also photographed the successive stages of the creation of Picasso's powerful anti-war painting, 'Guernica.' A remarkable combination of autographs sent to Man Ray.
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