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26
ALBERT CAMUS NOVEL ILLUSTRATED
BY SADEQUAIN
L'Etranger by Albert Camus
Lithographies Originales de Sadequain
Published by Les Bibliophiles de l'Automobile-Club de
France
1966
The book was launched at a gala dinner in Paris on 27
October 1966. The book was published in a limited
edition of 150 copies, with 130 copies dedicated to
members of Les Bibliophiles de l'Automobile-club
de France and numbered 1-130 with the beneficiary
member's name also printed in the credits. The
remaining 20 copies were numbered 'A' to 'T' in
penciland were meant for distribution among Camus'
estate [he had died in 1960], Sadequain, and the
collaborators in the book's production.
Each copy was printed on 'velin de Rives' with deckled
edges and issued loose in green cloth portfolio withgilt
title on spine and contained in a matching cloth box.
This copy is numbered 'T' in pencil and is thus the last
copy of the edition.
pp. 146 with 35 original lithographs, 22 of which are in
colour and 3 are double-page.
For further details see "Sadequain in Paris 1961-1967"
[Grosvenor Gallery, 2015]
A copy in a 2008 Osian's New Delhi auction sold for Rs
2.8 million.
Albert's Camus novel L'ETRANGER [The Stranger]
steeped in his philosophy of the absurd and
existentialism, illustrated by Pakistani artist Sadequain,
remains the most expensive and desirable book by any
artist from the Subcontinent in our own times.
Albert Camus was a Algerian author, journalist and
philosopher. He was born and brought up in Algeria
which was a french colony at the time but spent his
adult life in France. He was awarded the Nobel prize
for literature in 1957. Originally published in 1942,
L'Etranger (The Outsider), was his first novel and opens
with the famous line; "Aujourd'hui, maman est morte.
Ou peut-etre hier, je ne sais pas", (Mother died today. Or
maybe yesterday, I don't know). It is considered a classic
of French literature, and in 1999 was voted number
1 in Le Monde's list of the 100 greatest books of the
20thcentury.
The life of Nobel-winner Camus was cut short as a
result of a road accident in 1960 at the age of 47 and
in a surge of tributes a number of artists over the years
brought out portfolios illustrating this most iconic work
of the philosopher-novelist.
In 1960 Sadequain journeyed to Paris at the invitation of
the French Committee of the International Association
of Plastic Arts. This period of his career is considered by
many to have been the zenith of his artistic output,and
it was whilst in Paris that Sadequain completed one
of his most important commissions; providing the
illustrations for a newly published edition of Albert
Camus' seminal novel L'Etranger.
In 1964, four years after Camus' untimely death,
Sadequain was commissioned to produce a series
of lithographs for the special edition of the book. It
was published in October 1966 by 'Les Bibliophiles
de l'Automobile-club de France', a society that was
founded by the early motoring pioneer the Marquise de
Dion in 1895, and which began publishing artist's books
in 1925. (Source: Koninklijke Bibliotheek). At the time
it was an unprecedented move by the publishers to
engage Sadequain's services. When one considers how
many artists were workingin Paris in the 1960s, it shows
how highly regarded he was in Parisian artistic society at
the time.
Sadequain created 22 colour prints, and a number of
monochrome prints to illustrate key scenes in the book,
which deals with themes such as the irrationality of the
universe and importance of the physical world.
The 'L'Etranger' illustrations represent an extremely
important body of work, but are only a small part of the
rich output produced by Sadequain whilst in Paris.
Rs 9,00,000-Rs 12,00,000
$13,850-$18,465