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Paris: 4 Rue Ferou (6e). December 1937-March 1939. Four volumes, folio (355 x 260 mm). Original wraparound colour-illustrated card wrappers, housed in a custom pale blue cloth slipcase lined with marbled paper and a chemise in quarter blue cloth with marbled sides; vol. I, pp. 112, [113-128]; vol. II, pp. 128; vol. III, pp. 132; vol. IV, pp. 140; heliogravure, colour process, and lithographed plates included in pagination; light rubbing to spine tips, extremities, and folds, tears with associated creasing to margins of vol. III, pp. 19-26; overall a bright, clean, very good set; prospectus/order form loosely inserted to vol. I.Sharp, bright copies of the first four English-language issues of one of the high points of twentieth-century periodical publishing, featuring work by many of the greatest artists and writers of the age.Like The Yellow Book (1894-1897), La Revue Blanche (1889-1903), and Blast (1914-1915), Teriade's Parisian Verve review captured the spirit of its moment. The prefatory statement in the first issue boldly declares:'VERVE proposes to present art as intimately mingled with the life of each period and to furnish testimony of the participation by artists in the essential events of their time. It is devoted to artistic creation in all fields and in all forms. [.] It will present documents as they are, without any arrangement which might detract from their naturalness. The value of its elements will depend on their character, the selection of them that has been made and the significance they assume through their disposition in the magazine. That the illustrations may retain the import of the originals, VERVE will utilize the technical methods best suited to each reproduction. It will call on the best specialists of heliogravure in colors and in black and white, as well as of typography, and will not disdain to employ the forgotten process of lithography. The luxuriousness of VERVE will consist in the publication of documents as fully and as perfectly as possible.'These first four issues each bear striking wraparound colour covers by Matisse, Braque, Bonnard, and Rouault respectively, signalling the remarkable range of art and literature within. A brief glance at the contents pages reveals an extraordinary roll call of the greatest artists and writers at work during the early decades of the century: the first issue alone includes writing by Gide, Bataille, Dos Passos, Lorca, Malraux, and Michaux, alongside fine reproductions of paintings by Watteau, Corot, Delacroix, and Courbet, as well as recent work by Matisse, Derain, Bonnard, and Maillol; subsequent issues feature writing by Hemingway, Joyce, Sartre, and many others. First published in December 1937, Verve survived in various forms until 1960. These notably bright copies of the first four issues support John Russell's description of the journal 's[inging] out from the other side of the street in a way that made us run across the road to look [.] more closely.'See Russell, 'Flair for the Grand Gesture: Celebrating a Magazine', New York Times (1988).
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