Paris: Louis Carre, (1948). Presentation copy, inscribed by Eluard on half-title to American architect, historian, and museum director Fiske Kimball: "a Monsieur Fiske Kimball en hommage, Paul Eluard". First and limited edition, lettered "JV/XXII" on velin du Marais (from a total of 1,800 copies). 4to. Text in French. Illustrated with a color lithographed frontispiece, six color lithographs, one black and white plate, and in-text illustrations. Publisher's stiff yellow wrappers, printed in red and in green; in original glassine; in orange cloth slip case and chemise. Freitag 13130

A near-fine presentation copy of this monograph on Jacques Villon, inscribed by the author, Paul Eluard, to American architect, art historian, and director of the Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA), Fiske Kimball (1888-1955). Educated at Harvard, in 1916, Kimball was a pioneer in architectural preservation in America, and published the first scholarly work on the architectural drawing by Thomas Jefferson (Thomas Jefferson, Architect). From 1925-55 he served as the director of the PMA where he transformed it into one of the finest art museums in the country.