[ICART, Louis]. DON QUICHOTTE DE LA MANCHE - Comédie-Héroïque en cinq actes, en vers.
[Paris: no publisher], 1933.

Large 4to (332 x 268 mm)
Full havana morocco by Rosan (Paris) in 18th-century pastiche style, gilt roulette and triple fillet frame, richly tooled lace borders, olive morocco cornerpieces with alternating tools, arms of Marie-Antoinette in the centre of the boards, spine with false raised bands, gilt dotted compartments with fleur-de-lys, crowned lion and letter “I”, top edge gilt, burgundy fabric doublures.

Original and unique autograph manuscript.

The printer’s edition was published in 1934, but this manuscript is Louis Icart’s personal working copy, dated 25 November 1933 and signed by the artist. The play was first performed on 23 April 1938 at the Théâtre du Casino Municipal in Nice, the same year the second edition appeared.

The printed editions contain only one illustration, used for the cover. By contrast, this manuscript contains a total of 80 original and entirely unpublished illustrations, comprising:

70 original watercolours (including 16 full-page washes and 55 half-page watercolours) and 10 original pencil drawings.

This makes the present manuscript a completely unique and unpublished illustrated Don Quixote by Louis Icart, and the only known fully illustrated version of this theatrical adaptation.

Notably, the first scene of Act V, present and illustrated here, does not appear in the first printed edition, and was only included in the second edition of 1938, proving that Icart had already planned this final development in 1933.

The manuscript was exhibited at the Grand Palais, Paris, in 2016, during the 400th anniversary of the death of Miguel de Cervantes, and comes from the collection of René Cluzel, former member of the SLAM.

Binding with the (pastiche) arms of Marie-Antoinette (1755–1793).