GIBRAN, Kahlil (1883-1931)

GIBRAN, Kahlil (1883-1931)

Original watercolour. [« The Hand of Providence »?]
N.p., [New York], 1919, 27.7 x 21.5 cm, on laid paper
Pencil and watercolour. Signed « Kahlil ».
Watercolour: dampstain in the lower portion.
Binding: dampstains. Jacket soiled, with tears and losses.

A fine, unpublished watercolour

An emblematic drawing by the artist: « The Hand of Providence » (?)

This drawing inevitably calls to mind « The Hand of Providence » (also known as « Flame of God »), the artist’s emblematic illustration, which adorns the whole of his English-language works, from The Madman to The Garden of the Prophet.
Stylistically close to those published in Twenty Drawings in 1919 (see below), the watercolour has a vertical composition, reduced to a disproportionate arm supporting a nude male body folded in upon itself; it appears to associate human anatomy with a form of allegorical gesture. Here one again finds the profoundly spiritual approach of Kahlil Gibran, in which man, nature, and the divine are one.

This drawing appears on a leaf inserted into the accompanying book.

[With:]
Twenty Drawings by Kahlil Gibran. New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 1919.
Large in-4 (308 x 234 mm). Bradel half-cloth binding, upper cover adorned with a composition within a gilt medallion, rare illustrated jacket.
First edition comprising 20 plates.
Copy that has retained its illustrated jacket, which is very often lacking.

Autograph inscription signed, to Pierre de Lanux:

« To Pierre with Love from Kahlil
January 1920 ».

[With:]
LANUX, Pierre de. Autograph manuscript. Note concerning the publication of extracts from The Madman in a review.
One page, in-4, with typescript.

The friendship between Kahlil Gibran and Pierre de Lanux was sealed in the course of the 1910s, when Pierre de Lanux, after having served as secretary to André Gide and then to the Nouvelle Revue Française, became a diplomat in the United States, where Kahlil Gibran had been living since 1911, following his studies in Paris. In March 1918, Gibran made a portrait of his friend.

Lot appraised by Le Manuscrit Français for the Sotheby’s Paris sale, Livres & Manuscrits, 17 June 2026 (no. 146)
Estimate: EUR 20,000 – 25,000
Hammer price (including fees): EUR 61,440