Le Tumulte Noir portfolio

PAUL COLIN (1892-1985)
Le Tumulte Noir portfolio
Together with a presentation letter from Karl Lagerfeld
lithographs heightened with pochoir
20 1/2 in. high; 13 3/4 in. wide
COLIN, Paul (1892-1986). Le Tumulte Noir. Paris: Editions d'Art Succès, [1929].

A complete portfolio, limited to 500 copies, of Paul Colin’s fine lithographs heightened with pochoir, published in tribute "to Josephine Baker and the other African American performers who had captivated the Parisian public during les années folles, those 'crazy years' known in America as the Roaring Twenties" (Dalton and Gates). Le Tumulte Noir is not without problematic racial overtones, yet its imagery also expresses "the communal sigh of relief African Americans exhaled in France […] There, segregation was illegal. Hotels, restaurants, and theaters were open to all, regardless of race. African Americans could dance all night with, and make love to, French women and men, and no one even blinked." With this work, Colin captured the spirit and movement of the wild dance, the Charleston, newly imported from the United States of America, and the syncopated rhythms of a new art form called jazz. Karen C. C. Dalton and Henry Louis Gates, Jr. "Josephine Baker and Paul Colin: African American Dance Seen through Parisian Eyes." Critical Inquiry, Vol. 24, No. 4 (Summer, 1998).

Folio (473 x 320mm). Half-title, 43 lithographic plates (41 heightened with pochoir), on 21 single-page and one double-page sheet, two calligrams (one on the verso of a lithograph, the other on a single page of wove paper), and a reproduction of a manuscript by Josephine Baker entitled “Topic of the Day” (light wear and soiling to edges of some lithographs, occasional corner losses, partial spine tear to limitation page spread). Publisher's printed buff wrappers with red endpapers. Cloth clamshell.

[With:] LAGERFELD, Karl (1933-2019) Autograph letter (unsigned) to André Leon Talley, [Paris, n.d., but before 2010]. Four pages, quarto. Enclosing two Polaroids of a caftan being designed for Talley, housed in a folder bearing images from Colin’s Le Tumulte Noir on cover. Includes original stiff mailing envelope addressed in Lagerfeld's hand.

Provenance: Maurice J. Lachard (bookplate) – Catherine Ruchoux (bookplate) – Karl LAGERFELD (aforementioned letter of enclosure).