L`Etranger: Lithographies Originales de Sadequain

Albert Camus, L'Etranger: Lithographies Originales de Sadequain, Paris: Les Bibliophiles de l'Automobile-Club de France, 1966

pp. 146 with 35 original lithographs, 22 of which are in colour (one frontispiece, 18 full page and 3 double page); printed on 'velin de Rives' with deckled edges and issued loose in green cloth portfolio with gilt title on spine and contained in a matching cloth box

The book was launched at a gala dinner in Paris on 27 October 1966. The book was published in a limited edition of 150 copies, with 130 copies dedicated to members of Les Bibliophiles de l'Automobile-club de France and numbered 1-130 with the beneficiary member's name also printed in the credits. The remaining 20 copies were numbered 'A' to 'T' in pencil and were meant for distribution among Camus' estate [he had died in 1960], Sadequain, and the collaborators in the book's production.

This copy is No. 56.

Albert's Camus novel L'ETRANGER [The Stranger] steeped in his philosophy of the absurd and existentialism, illustrated by Pakistani artist Sadequain, remains the most expensive and desirable book by any artist from the Subcontinent in our own times.

Albert Camus was an Algerian author, journalist, and philosopher. He was born and brought up in Algeria which was a french colony at the time but spent his adult life in France. He was awarded the Nobel prize for literature in 1957. Originally published in 1942, L'Etranger (The Outsider), was his first novel and opens with the famous line; "Aujourd'hui, maman est morte. Ou peut-etre hier, je ne sais pas", (Mother died today. Or maybe yesterday, I don't know). It is considered a classic of French literature, and in 1999 was voted number 1 in Le Monde's list of the 100 greatest books of the 20th century.

The life of Nobel-winner Camus was cut short as a result of a road accident in 1960 at the age of 47 and in a surge of tributes a number of artists over the years brought out portfolios illustrating this most iconic work of the philosopher-novelist.

In 1960 Sadequain journeyed to Paris at the invitation of the French Committee of the International Association of Plastic Arts. This period of his career is considered by many to have been the zenith of his artistic output, and it was whilst in Paris that Sadequain completed one of his most important commissions; providing the illustrations for a newly published edition of Albert Camus' seminal novel L'Etranger.
.br.In 1964, four years after Camus' untimely death, Sadequain was commissioned to produce a series of lithographs for the special edition of the book. It was published in October 1966 by 'Les Bibliophiles de l'Automobile-club de France', a society that was founded by the early motoring pioneer the Marquise de Dion in 1895, and which began publishing artist's books in 1925. (Source: Koninklijke Bibliotheek). At the time it was an unprecedented move by the publishers to engage Sadequain's services. When one considers how many artists were working in Paris in the 1960s, it shows how highly regarded he was in Parisian artistic society at the time.

Sadequain created 22 colour prints, and a number of monochrome prints to illustrate key scenes in the book, which deals with themes such as the irrationality of the universe and importance of the physical world.

The 'L'Etranger' illustrations represent an extremely important body of work, but are only a small part of the rich output produced by Sadequain whilst in Paris.