Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. Wind, Sand and Stars
- Drawings and manuscripts.
- Exhibition from November 30, 2018 to March 9, 2019.
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry embodied for his contemporaries the link between action and literature, by celebrating the figure of the hero and the value of testimony. Expressing the truth of experience and the matter of dreams was his project as a writer; and to his fraternal work, he gave the pledge of his life, haunted by the pitfall of empty words and a humanity without horizon.
Original drawing by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry for Le Petit Prince, private collection.
Le Petit Prince is in the spotlight, with the presentation of an exceptional series of drawings offered by Saint-Exupéry to his American friend Silvia Hamilton; this unpublished collection sheds new light on the link between life and work. From there, the exhibition returns to the origins of a literary vocation, by revealing the first unpublished prose and poetry of the young Saint-Exupéry offered to his fiancée Louise de Vilmorin. It ends with the last words written by the writer, on July 30, 1944, found by his comrades in his pilot's room in Bastia the day after his disappearance.
The work of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry is made of wind, sand and stars: therein lies his profound humanity.
The exhibition
The Galerie Gallimard is pleased to present a new exhibition dedicated to the drawings and manuscripts of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.
Le Petit Prince is in the spotlight, with the presentation of an exceptional series of eleven drawings offered by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry to his American friend Silvia Hamilton in 1942-1943, at the time he wrote and drew Le Petit Prince. The series, which features the little prince himself and other characters, is a moving allegory of the "Âges de la vie":
Private collection.
Among the other pieces presented, many unpublished or little-known documents:
- The Little Prince watching a sunset on his planet: an original illustration from Chapter VI of Le Petit Prince, used for the printing of the original edition of the book, in New York, in May 1943;
- An extraordinary copy of Courrier Sud dedicated to Louise de Vilmorin (1929), never shown to this day;
- A small personal diary of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry: dated 1943 (Algiers), among the addresses and appointments, there appear the silhouettes of the little prince drawn by his hand:
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry Collection.
- The writer's bracelet found by fisherman Jean-Claude Bianco off the coast of Marseille in 1998:
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry Collection.
- The manuscript of the first two unpublished texts by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry on aviation: two short prose pieces from 1923, “ Le Vol ” and “ L'Accident ” inspired by his first flight accident (Le Bourget, May 1, 1923) which earned him a heavy hospitalization:
Private collection.
- Unpublished manuscripts and typescripts of Vol de nuit (1931) and Terre des hommes (1939);
- The last letter written by Saint-Exupéry: addressed to his friend the resistance fighter Pierre Dalloz, it was found in his pilot's room at the Bastia airfield by his squadron comrades on the day of his disappearance (July 31, 1944):
Private collection.
- The copy of the Pléiade Saint-Exupéry that the astronaut Thomas Pesquet took with him into space…
Editions Gallimard would like to thank the Succession Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, MM. Olivier d'Agay, Joan Giacinti, Edmond Horsey, Revell Horsey, Jean-Marc Probst, Virgil Tanase, Matthieu de Vilmorin, Olivier de Vilmorin.