Art Of The Day Weekly

Russian passions

PARIS – The auction of the library of José Johannet (1924-2013), a student of Pierre Pascal and one of the first graduates with a doctorate in Russian France, will interest Slavophiles – whether they like the Czar or Trotsky… The former will prefer Bibliothèque antique russe by Nicolas Novikoff (1775), the latter a rare plate dedicated by Trotski in 1918 to the organisation of the Red Army (€500). The diversity of subjects Johannet was interested in can be seen in the contents of his library, in which an original edition (1855) of Dead Souls by Gogol, sits next to the Complete Geographical Description of our Country, published in 11 volumes between 1899 and 1914 (€500) and the numerous editions of Russian writers published in Germany at the beginning of the 1920s, from Pushkin to Leon Chestov. We will also admire avant-garde magazines such as Lef (“Left”), directed by Maïakovski and the covers of which were designed by Rodchenko. The historical 1st issue of 1924, censored at the time and thus losing the editorial “Do not act like Lenin”, supposedly because of the Bolshevik leader’s recent death, is a rare item (€1000).
• Bibliothèque russe at the hôtel Drouot on 23Apvril 2014 (Tajan).

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