La prose du Transsibérien et de la Petite Jehanne de France (Prose of the Trans-Siberian and of Little Jehanne of France) is a collaborative artists' book by Blaise Cendrars

Blaise Cendrars

Frédéric Louis Sauser , better known as Blaise Cendrars, was a Swiss novelist and poet naturalized French in 1916. He was a writer of considerable influence in the modernist movement.-Early years:...

 and Sonia Delaunay-Terk. The book features a poem by Cendrars about a journey through Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

 on the Trans-Siberian Express in 1905, during the first Russian Revolution, interlaced with an almost-abstract pochoir print by Delaunay-Terk. The work, published in 1913, is considered a milestone in the evolution of artist's books as well as modernist poetry

Modernist poetry

Modernist poetry refers to poetry written between 1890 and 1950 in the tradition of modernist literature in the English language, but the dates of the term depend upon a number of factors, including the nation of origin, the particular school in question, and the biases of the critic setting the...

 and abstract art

Abstract art

Abstract art uses a visual language of form, color and line to create a composition which may exist with a degree of independence from visual references in the world. Western art had been, from the Renaissance up to the middle of the 19th century, underpinned by the logic of perspective and an...

.

The publisher of a 2008 reprint of the book has called it "one of the most beautiful books ever created". Cendrars himself referred to the work as ‘a sad poem printed on sunlight’.

Cendrars and the New Man Press

Blaise Cendrars was the nom-de-plume for Fréderic Louis Sauser, a play on Braise (fire) and Cendres (ash); 'writing is being burned alive, but it also means being reborn from the ashes'. Born in Switzerland, at 15 he had run away from home to train as an apprentice jeweller in St Petersburg, but continued to travel, including an important stay in New York where he wrote his first major poem Les Pâques à New York, 1912 , before settling in Paris.

Once in Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

, he started a small press, Éditions des Hommes Nouveaux (New Man Editions) with the help of an anarchist who owned a clandestine printing press at the Mouzaïa Quarter, 19th arrondissement. His first edition, 125 copies of Les Pâques à New York, was published October 1912. Despite failing to sell a single copy, he pressed ahead with the second book, La prose du Transsibérien, published June 1913 (see 1913 in poetry

1913 in poetry

Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-Events:* January 8—Harold Monro founds the Poetry Bookshop in London...

). Intended as an edition of 150, only 60 copies were printed, of which about 30 are thought to survive. The book, a series of 4 sheets glued together in an accordion style binding, measures 199 cm tall when unfolded; the height of all 150 end to end would have equalled the height of the Eiffel Tower

Eiffel Tower

The Eiffel Tower is a puddle iron lattice tower located on the Champ de Mars in Paris. Built in 1889, it has become both a global icon of France and one of the most recognizable structures in the world...

, a potent symbol of modernity at the time, and referenced in both the poem and the print.

"[The poem] describes the 16-year old poet’s epic, perhaps imaginary, train journey from Moscow to Harbin (in Mongolia) during the Russo-Japanese War and the Russian Revolution of 1905. The route is shown on the contemporary map printed at the top right of the sheet. It is a long, oppressive ride through Russia with apocalyptic scenes of war and revolution, and descriptions of cold, hunger, death and devastation which worsen as the train follows its eastward course and are punctuated by the repeated, melancholy question of Jehanne, the poet's companion, "Dis Blaise, sommes nous bien loin de Montmartre?" (Blaise, are we very far from Montmartre?')" Chris Michaelides

The book is an early example of the deliberate use of multiple fonts - twelve in all - in different sizes and colours to suggest movement and differing moods, contemporaneous to similar experiments by the Italian futurists

Futurism

Futurism was an artistic and social movement that originated in Italy in the early 20th century.Futurism or futurist may refer to:* Afrofuturism, an African-American and African diaspora subculture* Cubo-Futurism* Ego-Futurism...

. It is also unusual for 'defying the codex

Codex

A codex is a book in the format used for modern books, with multiple quires or gatherings typically bound together and given a cover.Developed by the Romans from wooden writing tablets, its gradual replacement...

 form' and for placing the images on an equal footing to the text; they run parallel and complementary to the text, rather than as illustrative or decorative additions.

Simultaneity and the Parisian Avant-Garde

It was through Guillaume Apollinaire

Guillaume Apollinaire

Wilhelm Albert Włodzimierz Apolinary Kostrowicki, known as Guillaume Apollinaire was a French poet, playwright, short story writer, novelist, and art critic born in Italy to a Polish mother....

, a mutual friend, that Cendrars was to meet Sonia and her husband Robert Delaunay

Robert Delaunay

Robert Delaunay was a French artist who, with his wife Sonia Delaunay and others, cofounded the Orphism art movement, noted for its use of strong colours and geometric shapes. His later works were more abstract, reminiscent of Paul Klee...

, members of the Parisian avant-garde, leading exponents of cubism

Cubism

Cubism was a 20th century avant-garde art movement, pioneered by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, that revolutionized European painting and sculpture, and inspired related movements in music, literature and architecture...

, and inventors of the term Simultaneity.

The Delaunays had coined the word from their study of Chevreul's laws of simultaneous contrast. This new style had first appeared in April 1912 with Robert Delaunay's series of paintings of Fenêtres (Windows) followed closely by Sonia's abstract Contrastes Simultanés and was boldly taken up by both husband and wife for the rest of their careers.

"The intensity of the colour field is heightened in accordance with the law of simultaneous contrast: orange seen next to green becomes more red, while green seen next to orange appears more blue. These constant two-way influences create an unusual vibration in the eye of the viewer. Delaunay read this phenomenon as movement and rhythm and understood it as the painting appropriate to a modern society in motion."

The series of Windows, with their use of the Eiffel Tower as the central theme, were a direct influence on Sonia's contributions to the poem; again, the eye was supposed to move between elements of the picture and the words creating a sensation of speed and disorientation that echoed the poem's theme of travel. The book is contained in a wrapper which declares it the "first simultaneous book'. It also contains a map of Siberia at the beginning of the book, showing the route of the train journey.

Reception of the Book

When published, the book was to cause a sensation in the avant-garde circles in Paris. Many, if not most, of the surviving copies are now held by major museums and libraries, including the V&A, Tate Modern

Tate Modern

Tate Modern is a modern art gallery located in London, England. It is Britain's national gallery of international modern art and forms part of the Tate group . It is the most-visited modern art gallery in the world, with around 4.7 million visitors per year...

, MOMA

Moma

Moma may refer to:* Moma , an owlet moth genus* Moma Airport, a Russian public airport* Moma District, Nampula, Mozambique* Moma River, a right tributary of the Indigirka River* Google Moma, the Google corporate intranet...

, the Hermitage

Hermitage Museum

The State Hermitage is a museum of art and culture in Saint Petersburg, Russia. One of the largest and oldest museums of the world, it was founded in 1764 by Catherine the Great and has been opened to the public since 1852. Its collections, of which only a small part is on permanent display,...

, Swiss National Library

Swiss National Library

The Swiss National Library is the national library of Switzerland. It is part of the Federal Office of Culture. Under the terms of the law which governs it, it is charged with collecting, cataloging and conserving information in all fields and disciplines, and in any medium, connected with...

, New York Public Library

New York Public Library

The New York Public Library is the largest public library in North America and is one of the United States' most significant research libraries...

, Getty Research Institute

Getty Research Institute

The Getty Research Institute , located at the Getty Center in Los Angeles, California, is "dedicated to furthering knowledge and advancing understanding of the visual arts". A program of the J...

, and the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas.

It is often exhibited framed, removing it from its origins as an artist's book. Copies are also occasionally referred to as unique paintings.