Skip to main content
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 14

Rene Ricard
Monet Portrait of Jeanne Duval: Ricard drawing vintage typewriter love poetry

1989

$3,000
£2,245.34
€2,599.96
CA$4,169.51
A$4,696.28
CHF 2,432.03
MX$57,034.42
NOK 30,892.44
SEK 29,304.09
DKK 19,399.30
Shipping
Retrieving quote...
The 1stDibs Promise:
Authenticity Guarantee,
Money-Back Guarantee,
24-Hour Cancellation

About the Item

Touched by the influence of Andy Warhol, champion of a young Jean-Michel Basquiat, Rene Ricard served as enfant terrible of the 1980s New York art scene. Here, Ricard traverses visual art, text, and the pleasure of sculptural trompe-l’œil with this printed drawing of melancholy hand-written and typed love poetry, composed with natural earthen shades of antique white and brown. Monet Portrait of Jeanne Duval is presented in the form of a letter: its envelope carries the title and artist's name, printed on a pale pink label embellished with white fleurs-de-lis and a delicate gold frame. The "letter" folded up within has been printed to look distressed and burned. At the top of the sheet, the title is handwritten. Below, a poem in typewriter typeface reads: "in a cab across 23 street, you're wearing your lips squeezed into the little moue I call your whore lips and a white 'I Love New York' sweatshirt new but dirty / You got who knows where. Remember I told you the story. You made me think of Jeanne Duval, the whore Baudelaire adored. Down the East River Drive . I told you the story, remember? I described Monet's portrait of Jeanne Duval It must've been a dress Monet loved. He used it over and over. It was the year of the major crinoline, how we picture Scarlett Ohara. The enormous skirt and high tiny waist - (rather, 'a high and tiny waist') set off by a Little Bolero. The sleeves are long and tight, the neck high and edged with (like the sleeves) narrow lace. It is the whitest dress ever painted Orgady [sic] or dotted swiss, the white set off by on edges and flounces by black. She's half-draped across a small canape, white silk ankles crossed and tiny low, black slippers, the whole surmounted by a shrunken head and black Banana-curl wig / June 26 1989 R. R." The poem probably refers to Manet's 1862 portrait of Jeanne Duval, Baudelaire's Haitian-born muse, who was known as the "Black Venus." In the painting, a woman with a fan reclines on a couch, one foot emerging from the diaphanous cloud of her skirt. Ricard's poem is ambiguous, halfway between love letter and lament. This print was published in Ricard's 1990 book of poetry Trusty Sarcophagus along with the printed poem. The artist came up with the idea for this print after he had been carrying a folded piece of paper with this poem tucked underfoot in his shoe. With its purposeful scuffing and “burn” marks, Monet Portrait of Jeanne Duval is designed to look like a well-worn letter, giving the impression of a precious document that has been read over and over again. The addition of hand-written cursive reflects the emotions expressed in Ricard’s poems. He adjuncts this expression with a personalization: “To T” in the lower left refers to Tony, his lover at the time. As a published poet and art critic, Ricard often blurred the lines between poetry and visual art. Ricard's confessional hand-painted and hand-written poetry is almost always accompanied by the artist's outsized signature, integrated into the composition, or placed at its center. Here, Ricard signs the letter with his typed initials, and again across the paper in pencil, displaying the artist's unabashed confidence and flamboyance. This confidence (and Ricard's bedroom-eyed allure) attracted the attention of Andy Warhol, and the young Rene (formerly Albert Napoleon Ricard) became his protege. He would appear in three Warhol films, even playing the Factory founder himself in "Andy Warhol Story". Warhol would later call the famously acid-tongued Ricard "The George Sanders of the Lower East Side, the Rex Reed of the art world." By the early 1980s, Rene Ricard was a fixture in the New York art scene, not only as an accomplished artist, but as a critic. Penning enlightening and poetic essays for Artforum, he turned his attention to rising stars such as Julian Schnabel and Alex Katz. Ricard famously wrote the first major article on Jean-Michel Basquiat. “The Radiant Child” is credited with launching Basquiat’s career, and is considered a seminal contemporary art essay. Paper 30 x 20 in. / 76.2 x 50.8 cm Folded, and presented in an envelope 25 x 25 cm. / 10 x 10 in. Lithograph on Nepal Heavyweight paper with natural fibres. Edition 50: this impression 47/50. Signed by the artist lower center in pencil; numbered 47/50 center left in pencil. Title handwritten by the artist top center
  • Creator:
    Rene Ricard (1946 - 2014, American)
  • Creation Year:
    1989
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 30 in (76.2 cm)Width: 20 in (50.8 cm)
  • Medium:
  • Movement & Style:
  • Period:
  • Condition:
    This print is not previously owned and has been stored in the archives of the publisher since its publication.
  • Gallery Location:
    New York, NY
  • Reference Number:
    1stDibs: LU121125790322

More From This Seller

View All
The Unhappily Dead: Rene Ricard poetry of 1980s Chelse New York life rainbow
By Rene Ricard
Located in New York, NY
Touched by the influence of Andy Warhol, champion of a young Jean-Michel Basquiat, Rene Ricard served as enfant terrible of the 1980s New York art scene. In this rainbow print, Ricar...
Category

1980s Contemporary Abstract Prints

Materials

Lithograph

I Dreamed by Rene Ricard: abstract yellow and black brushwork with poetry
By Rene Ricard
Located in New York, NY
Abstract yellow and black Rene Ricard print with hand painted poetry on handmade paper. Printed in black ink at the top of the sheet and framed with a thin line, the artist's loose h...
Category

1980s Contemporary Abstract Prints

Materials

Lithograph

The Limp by Rene Ricard abstract poetry painting
By Rene Ricard
Located in New York, NY
The Limp conjures the image of Rene consumed with energy and righteousness, then resignation: "He was pushing the door in, I was pushing him out / He won". The words are scrawled in ...
Category

1980s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil, Acrylic, Screen

Love in Brooklyn by Rene Ricard poetry painting
By Rene Ricard
Located in New York, NY
Love in Brooklyn, painted in baby blue, light pink, and pale green, depicts a stark image of Brooklyn, which had not yet seen the development spreading across Manhattan: “Love in Bro...
Category

1990s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil, Acrylic, Screen

Ashes of Roses by Rene Ricard 1989 New York Lower East Side poetry LES
By Rene Ricard
Located in New York, NY
Ashes of Roses is Rene Ricard's mauve-colored map of Rivington Street between Suffolk and Clinton Street, with a white arrow pointing to the word mofongo, indicating a Puerto Rican r...
Category

1980s Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil, Acrylic, Screen

Rene Ricard Red Blue Nasty, 1989 poetry painting Keith Haring reference
By Rene Ricard
Located in New York, NY
Frustration is center stage, written in cursive: "It's one of those days nothing works out right -- bump into any sharp corner – can’t tell flesh from white or brown from…or green fr...
Category

1980s Contemporary Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil, Acrylic, Screen

You May Also Like

Correspondence by L. Gischia to N. Jacometti - 1954-55
By Léon Gischia
Located in Roma, IT
This Correspondence by Léon Gischia to Nesto Jacometti, written in French, between 1954-55, is composed of 3 items, prefectly readable and in excellent conditions, except for holes...
Category

1960s Surrealist More Art

Materials

Permanent Marker

Writings in your absence
By Maria Noel
Located in Fairfield, CT
Category

Contemporary Mixed Media

Haiku to words as used by Apollinaire (II)
By Maria Noel
Located in Fairfield, CT
María Noël was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on November 25th, 1965. She studied Fine Arts at the Prilidiano Pueyrredón Higher School of Fine Arts, in Buenos Aires. She also studied philosophy and art history at the Philosophy and Literature School of the University of Buenos Aires. She was a regular student with prestigious Argentine artists Aurelio Macchi, Alberto Delmonte and Luis Barragán, who all left the deepest imprint. A tireless traveler, she has visited countries in the East and the West. In 1989-1990 she lived in Naples (Italy) and Milan. During a stay in Cairo in 1990, she learned techniques for paper manufacturing and the use of vegetable dyes. A daughter and a granddaughter of Argentinian writers, literature is a main character in her work. She has series of paintings and collages dedicated to J. L. Borges, Octavio Paz, Juan de la Cruz, Paul Valery and Fernando Pessoa...
Category

Contemporary Mixed Media

Rare Charles Olson/David Roth 'Poster Poem' of Black Mountain College Interest
By David Roth
Located in Sharon, CT
Charles Olson's "The heart is a clock" Poster Poem published 1968 by Edward Budowski (Aries Publications Buffalo N.Y.) in a numbered edition of 25-this i...
Category

Vintage 1960s American Minimalist Posters

Materials

Paper

Correspondance by Max Gubler - 1949
Located in Roma, IT
This Correspondance between Max Gubler and Nesto Jacometti, written in 1949, in French, is in excellent conditions and includes 3 items: Autograph Letter S...
Category

1940s More Art

Materials

Paper, Ink

Letter from Bernard Fay to Countess Anna Laetitia Pecci - Early 20th Century
Located in Roma, IT
Original hand written letter from Bernard Fay to Countess Anna Laetitia Pecci.
Category

Early 20th Century Contemporary More Art

Materials

Paper