Image

Photographer
Tom Haartsen
Portrait de Moravagine
1979
38,5cm
x 30,5cm
paper
watercolour
Private collection, NL
Moravagine is a Blaise Cendrars (1887–1961) novel, published by Grasset en 1926. It is[1] a complex opus, with a central figure (the Moravagine character) like a dark persona of the author which he gets rid of through writing. Its genesis took a decade (with Cendrars hinting at it as early as 1917) and Cendrars never stopped working on it. In 1956, the author somewhat rewrote the text, added a postface and a section titled "Pro domo: How I wrote Moravagine". In its ultimate revision, Cendrars says the book is definitely incomplete, as it was meant to be a preface to a "complete works of Moravagine" that are not there.
Details
English title
Portrait of Moravagine
Signed/dated
Signed and titled Constant Portrait de Moravagine, bottom right in red gouache
Provenance
1979 Constant
Collection Adèle van Rijckevorsel, NL (gift)
2017 Collection Maurits Kruseman, NL (heirs Adèle van Rijckevorsel, NL)
Frame dimensions
No