The Jean Charlot Collection
ABOUT THE COLLECTION || ABOUT JEAN CHARLOT || HIS ART || HIS COLLECTIONS || ARCHIVES OF HAWAI'I ART || RELATED SITES
A PROJECT TO DIGITIZE JEAN CHARLOT'S DRAWINGS CREATED FOR PAUL CLAUDEL'S L'APOCALYPSE
Summary of the project
The aim of the project is to digitize approximately 150 unpublished drawings by Jean Charlot originally created for Paul Claudel's A Travers les Vitraux de apocalypse and to mount these images on the Jean Charlot web page. Along with the images will be included related textual materials held by the Jean Charlot Collection, University of Hawai'i Library. This project will make these important materials available to an audience of international researchers who are not able to travel to Hawaii.
Background information
Paul Claudel and Jean Charlot met in Washington, D.C., on December 14, 1928. Claudel was serving as French ambassador, and Charlot had come to the United States to edit the official report of the Carnegie expedition to Chich'en Itza, Yucatan, Mexico. The two Frenchmen became fast friends and collaborated on a number of projects. Among these were an article and books by Paul Claudel with illustrations by Charlot:
Claudel, Paul, 1929."The Gods Churn the Sea" The Forum,vol 82, August, 95ff.
1930.The Book of Christopher Columbus: A Lyrical Drama in Two Parts. Decorations by Jean Charlot. New Haven, Yale University Press.
1933.Le Livre de Christophe Colomb: Drame Lyrique en Deux Parties. Illustrations de Jean Charlot. Paris: Librarie Gallimard.
1934.La Legende de Prakriti. Frontispiece de Jean Charlot. Paris: Gallimard, NFR.
1946.Les Revelations de la Salette. Illustrations de Jean Charlot. Paris: La Table Ronde.
Charlot also wrote "inscriptions" for a book on Claudel:
Charlot, Jean, 1933. Picture Book: Thirty-two Original Lithographs. Legendes de Paul Claudel. New York: J. Becker.
In addition, there is a book on Charlot by Claudel:
Claudel, Paul, 1931. Jean Charlot (Peintres Nouveaux). Paris, NRF.
However, the largest project they planned has remained unpublished: an illustrated version of Claudel's A Gravers des Vitraux de Apocalypse. Only a small number of these illustrations was used in:
Claudel, Paul, 1947.Introduction a l'Apocalypse. Illustrations de Jean Charlot, Gravees Sur bois par Gerard Angiolini. Paris, Egloff.
The illustrations for this book were in fact completed and are the product of a collaboration between a writer and an artist that is so intimate as to be unprecedented. 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:
Baciu-Simian, Mira, 1975."Documents Inedits Paul Claudel - Jean Charlot concernant l'Apocalypse."Paul Claudel in the Pacific, May, pp.40-51.
Charlot, John, 1990-1991."Jean Charlot as Paul Claudel's Ixtlilxochotl." The Journal of Intercultural Studies, Number 17 & 18,pp.64-74.
These illustrations are now housed in the Jean Charlot Collection, Hamilton Library, University of Hawaii. The project proposes to make them more widely available to scholars and students by photographing them and publishing them on the web site of the collection.
See the illustrations by Chapter and Page Order
All images and texts by Jean Charlot copyright the Jean Charlot Estate