La Curieuse, Toquades pl.8

Jean-Pierre Cassigneul

1991

Original color lithograph on Arches paper for Toquades by Françoise Sagan, Paris, Mazo Lebouc S.A. Éditions, 1991, pl. 8

59 x 42 cm

Numbered in pencil lower left on 200, signed by the artist in pencil lower right

Catalog raisonné : Lebouc and Takahashi 8

In 1991, Jean-Pierre Cassigneul illustrated the book Toquades by Françoise Sagan, published on watermarked Arches vellum, Imprimerie nationale for the text, in an edition of 230 copies, 20 of which were numbered, with an additional edition of 2 rejected plates, signed by the artist; 180 numbered copies from 21 to 200 and 30 off-price copies numbered up to XXX. The book presents a set of eight texts in which the author explores the love affairs of a protagonist (perhaps Cassigneul?). Françoise Sagan features a different mistress in each of her texts, and the artist accompanies each story with a numbered and signed full-page lithograph illustrating the lover in question, including "La Curieuse", the eponymous title of the seventh text. As with the others, the artist creates a visual representation of a character trait that seduced the character, but also led to the break-up.

"I left her the day I found her bent double again, in front of a lock, which was my living room lock. I was supposed to be chatting there with an old friend (whom I'd left for a moment to look for a book) and she was all the more bent over as she tried to find me there. I patted her on the shoulder, and she turned and realized quite quickly. It was her last indiscretion (...)"(1)

The book also includes two color lithographs, a bandeau and a cul-de-lampe.

(1) Françoise Sagan, "La Curieuse", Toquades, 1991