Joseph Cornell, Surrealism with an American Accent

Published on 20 October 2023, by Anne Doridou-Heim

Auction on 27 October 2023 - 14:00 (CEST) - Salle 7 - Hôtel Drouot - 75009

This iconic leporello by the New York artist opens a window on American Surrealism.

Joseph Cornell (1903-1972), Window, Object, 1937, of 19 original bistre photographs... Joseph Cornell, Surrealism with an American Accent

Joseph Cornell (1903-1972), Window, Object, 1937, of 19 original bistre photographs mounted on the endpapers of a 19^th-century book (4.1 x 4 cm/1.61 x 1.57 in), total length 76 cm/29.92 in, in a box in the form of a book with a sheepskin or goatskin-bound spine and covers. Estimate: €25,000/30,000

Opera lovers are familiar with “Madamina, il catalogo è questo”, the aria from Act One of Mozart’s Don Giovanni in which Leporello, the title character’s servant, accomplice and whipping boy, reels off a long list of his master’s conquests to Elvira from a book folded like an accordion. It is the origin of the term "leporello" used in the publishing industry since the second half of the 18 th century for this particular format, which was created at an unknown date and widely used in 16 th -century Italy, mainly for illustrations. The most famous example is undoubtedly La Prose du Transsibérien et de la petite Jehanne de France , a poem by Blaise Cendrars written in 1913 and illustrated by Sonia Delaunay.…

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