Circa 1939
In 1939/1940 Constant drew 8 illustrations for the poems Fleurs du Mal by Charles Baudelaire,1857.
Both the drawings Le revenant (The Ghost) and Femmes damnées (Delphine et Hippolyte) are from Fleurs du Mal.
Work
Pages
photo: Tom Haartsen
Le revenant
1939
20.0cm x 13.5cm
crayon, paper, pencil, watercolor
Private collection
photo: Tom Haartsen
Portret van mijn grootvader
1938
45.0cm x 38.0cm
paper, pencil
Private collection
Constants grandfather on his mother's side was a tailor. Constant wore a purple suit made by his grandfather when he met Gerrit Kouwenaar on the Magere brug (Skinny Bridge) on a summer day in Amsterdam in 1942. Gerrit Kouwenaar later described this first meeting in the opening speech of an exhibition of Constant in Galerie Le Canard, 26 Januari 1952, with the following words:
photo: Tom Haartsen
photo: Unknown
photo: Tom Haartsen
photo: Tom Haartsen