Brancusi’s drawing of James Joyce.
The Centre Pompidou in Paris is hosting the exhibition “Brancusi, Art is just beginning” – from 27 March to 1 July 2024 – of almost 400 of Constantin Brancusi’s works.
Romanian-born artist Constantin Brancusi (1876-1957) arrived in Paris in 1904 at the age of 28, where he remained until his death at 81. He left his entire collection and studio to the French State on the condition that his studio would be rebuilt exactly as it was on the day of his death. His studio, temporarily closed for the exhibition, is reconstructed in the large hall of the Centre Pompidou.
Constantin Brancusi drew several depictions of Irish author James Joyce – line drawings, paintings, portraits, and full body.
Some of Brancusi’s James Joyce drawings, particularly “Portrait of James Joyce for Tales Told of Shem and Shaun” (1929), appear in the exhibition at the Centre Pompidou.
After Pablo Picasso declined, American publishers Harry and Caresse Crosby of Black Sun Press commissioned Constantin Brancusi to draw images of James Joyce for their limited edition of Finnegans Wake. Black Sun Press, an English-language publications house, established in 1927, continued until 1970.
Brancusi drew six sketches of James Joyce for Black Sun Press – three in profile and three face-on. They all feature James Joyce wearing his circular rimmed glasses.
He added a drawing of a clockwise spiral symbol, called “Portrait of the Author” (1929-1930), but in effect, it was not a portrait at all. According to The Morgan Library & Museum in New York, Brancusi said the symbol showed that:
“Joyce is like that: he departs from one point, and you’ll never meet him again.” In 1954, Brancusi changed the title to “Joyce’s Symbol.”
It is the only one of the seven original sketches that is signed.
According to the 2008 publication The Centre Pompidou collection, National Museum of Modern Art, under the direction of Agnès de la Beaumelle, Paris, Centre Pompidou, the “Joyce’s Symbol” – known as the legacy drawing – part of Brancusi’s estate that went to the French State in 1957, is thought to be a draft or re-work when James Joyce made two visits to Brancusi’s studio at Impasse Ronsin in the 15th arrondissement in Paris in 1930.
The drawing “Portrait of James Joyce for Tales Told of Shem and Shaun” at the Pompidou exhibition in Paris, showing an actual portrait, was initially intended for Tales Told of Shem and Shaun but later integrated into the 1929 publication of Finnegans Wake.
The drawing is in graphite lead on paper, 42 x 32 centimetres (16.5 x 12.6 inches).
