Jean Charlot drawings for Paul Claudel

Unpublished drawings by Jean Charlot originally created for Paul Claudel's A Travers les Vitraux de Apocalypse and related textual materials held by the Jean Charlot Collection, University of Hawai'i Library.

Drawings are described by the chapter and page numbers written on the original source.

Paul Claudel and Jean Charlot met in 1928 and collaborated on many published projects. However, the largest project they planned has remained unpublished: an illustrated version of Claudel's A Travers des Vitraux de Apocalypse. Claudel sketched and described the illustrations he wanted, and Charlot acted as a kind of artistic medium to realize them. The drawings are, therefore, a unique witness to the thought of Claudel and a unique chapter in Charlot's artistic production. The process has been described in: Only a small number of the illustrations were used in Introduction a l'Apocalypse. Illustrations de Jean Charlot, Gravees Sur bois par Gerard Angiolini by Paul Claudel, Paris, 1947. [https://uhmanoa.lib.hawaii.edu/vwebv/holdingsInfo?bibId=3412817]

More information is available in the manuscript document (scanned from a photocopy) transcribing a series of interviews by Mira Baciu-Simian with Jean Charlot [https://uhmanoa.lib.hawaii.edu/vwebv/holdingsInfo?bibId=585905]. The first line of the first page reads: "Et bien c'est Samedi le 12 Février et je vais demander a Jean Charlot de me dire comment il a décidé avec Paul Claudel de faire l’Apocalypse." [translation: Well it's Saturday, February 12 and I will ask Jean Charlot to tell me how he decided to do with Paul Claudel the Apocalypse"]

All images and texts by Jean Charlot copyright The Jean Charlot Estate LLC

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