SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTE (1873-1954)

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SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTE (1873-1954)
Autograph manuscript in French, signed 'Colette', [n.d. c.1933], 7½pp, 4°, blue ink on blue paper, an essay on female beauty entitled 'Recettes/"Son nez, sa bouche et ses oreilles" (air connu)', including numerous autograph cancellations and amendments, annotated in red pencil in a different hand in upper margin on first page, 'Marianne, p.6 [...]', a somewhat acerbic piece, written in a conversational style, on the loss of the charms of youth and mocking the current vogue for flat breasts and slimming, which leaves these younger women devoid of their former attraction, 'Telle Beauté que nous avons, nous ses ainées de quinze ou vingt ans, connue comme delicieusement camuse, la lèvre courte, une fossette à chaque coin de bouche, et fragonarde comme pas une, nous la retrouvons - pour peu que nous l'ayons laissé seule, cinq à six mois - grandie, osseuse, avec un profil de cheval luxembourgeois' (discolouration in lower margins on first four leaves).

Lot Essay

The article was written for the Parisian periodical, Marianne, to which Colette contributed in 1933, and a note on the last page is probably for her editor, 'S.H. - Oui, mes lectrices peuvent m'ecrire à "Marianne"'. Although the pursuit of beauty and youth is a constant theme in Colette's novels, it is less well known that from the 1920's she lectured on beauty and rejuvenation while frequently trying out the latest treatments. Soon after becoming the mistress of Maurice Goudeket, 17 years her junior, she established a business, helped by captial from, among others, the Pacha of Marrakesh, and in 1932 opened her own Institute of Beauty, an investment which proved very unprofitable.

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