Aug 17, 2023 - Sale 2644

Sale 2644 - Lot 42

Price Realized: $ 3,750
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 3,000 - $ 4,000

JEAN COCTEAU (1889 - 1963)


L'officier nu.
Pen and ink with colored pencil and wash on buff wove paper. 245x163 mm; 9 3/4x6 3/8. Signed with the artist's star monogram in pen and ink, lower right recto. Circa 1947.

A study for Jean Genet's novel Querelle de Brest (Paris: Morihien, 1947). The 29 drawings that Cocteau created for the first edition of Genet's novel were bold, graphic, and daring in their erotic rawness. It remains among his best-known works.