Lithograph on vélin d'Arches paper. Paper size: 16.5625 x 12.625 inches. Excellent condition. Inscription: Unsigned and unnumbered, as issued. Notes: From the folio, Au Soleil du Plafond, 1955. Published by Éditions de la Revue Verve, Paris; under the direction of Tériade, éditeur, Paris; printed by Mourlot Frères, Paris, February 4, 1955. Excerpted from the folio (translated from French), This album, completed writing in the present form, was born more than thirty years after it was conceived by its authors, and Juan Gris, who had assumed the illustration of it, died in 1927, having been able to perform only half of his work. This is why the twenty poems are accompanied, in this book, by only eleven lithographs, one of which, the coffee grinder, appearing in the frontispiece, was the first project subsequently modified by the painter. This first project was executed in 1916 or 1917. The lack of these ten illustrations forced us to make a very different presentation of the book which, according to the first design, was to consist of twenty plates on rigid cardboard in the form of prints, each poem highlighting the engraving concerning it. This album is therefore in Juan's work, grey, a unique document and, in our mind, a tribute to the memory of a prematurely deceased friend. This manuscript album by Pierre Reverdy, illustrated by Juan Gris, was completed and printed on February 4, 1955, on the presses of Mourlot Frères, for Éditions de la Revue Verve. This work was drawn on Vélin d'Arches, CCV examples, numbered from I to CCV. The first XLV examples include a series of illustrations on papier de Chine. It was also drawn XV non-commerce examples numbered from I to XV. All examples are signed by Pierre Reverdy. Excerpted from the catalogue entry for the example from this edition owned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, This album was originally planned by L. Rosenberg ca. 1916-1917. Gris died in 1927, having finished only half of the intended illustrations. The project was taken up by Ténade some thirty years later, with the collaboration of the author (Reverdy). Although published in 1955, it is generally accepted as one of the greatest Cubist "livres d'artiste." Both the "illustrations" and the handwritten text are printed via lithography. The text is printed in black and the eleven illustrations in color, on colored grounds. Unbound sheets in slipcase. JUAN GRIS (1887-1927) was a Spanish painter born in Madrid who lived and worked in France for most of his active period. Closely connected to the innovative artistic genre Cubism, his works are among the movement's most distinctive. In 1906, after he sold all his possessions, he moved to Paris and became friends with the poets Guillaume Apollinaire, Max Jacob, and artists Henri Matisse, Georges Braque, Fernand Léger and Jean Metzinger. He submitted darkly humorous illustrations to journals such as the anarchist satirical magazine L'Assiette au Beurre, and also Le Rire, Le Charivari, and Le Cri de Paris. In Paris, Gris followed the lead of Metzinger and another friend and fellow countryman, Pablo Picasso.