Untitled
January, 1940. Aquatint with etching on wove paper, #2 / 3. Inscribed and signed by Jean below image, "1.1940 Marcel Jean II 2 /3". 9 3 / 4 x 7 in. (248 x 178 mm).

Together with:

Untitled
March, 1940. Aquatint with etching on wove paper, #1/2. Inscribed and signed by Jean below image, "1st Etat Marcel Jean 1/2 3-1940". 9 7/8 x 6 7/8 in. (251 x 175 mm).

Marcel Jean was a French artist and writer, born in Burgundy in 1900. He studied at the Ecole nationale des Arts Decoratifs in Paris, and in 1924 moved to the United States to work as a textile designer. After returning to France in 1926, he became interested in the burgeoning Surrealist movement and joined in 1933, befriending Andre Breton, Paul Eluard, Benjamin Peret, and Rene Crevel. From there he participated in Surrealist meetings, exhibitions, and publications, and became one of the first chroniclers of the movement. He spent World War II in Budapest and returned to Paris in 1945. In the 1950s he embarked on an extensive analysis of the Surrealist movement, Histoire de la peinture surrealiste. He later edited the writings of Jean Arp, and lectured on Surrealism at the Museum of Modern Art. In 1978 he published Autobiographie du Surrealisme, an anthology of Surrealist writings, and in 1991 published his memoirs, Au Galop dans le vent parait. He died in 1993.

Provenance: Collection of Tonian Genstein Volk, Pennsylvania