The original manuscript of the “Little Prince” will be exhibited for the first time in France for the exhibition “Meeting the Little Prince”, until June 26 at the Museum of Decorative Arts in Paris.
The little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry will be entitled to his first major exhibition in France. From February 17 to June 26, the Museum of Decorative Arts in Paris will host more than 650 pieces related to the timeless work, sold more than 200 million copies worldwide and translated into more than 498 languages and dialects.
A treasure in the exhibition
But among the exhibits, one attracts more attention. The original manuscript of The Little Prince, kept at the Morgan Library & Museum in New York, has crossed the Atlantic to complete this exhibition. A historic moment, because it had never been shown to the French public until now.
Thirty pages out of the 141 that make up this priceless treasure have therefore been carefully framed one by one, because they are very fragile. Saint-Exupéry used a very thin paper called “Onion Skin” to write his texts and make his drawings.
“We see that Saint-Exupéry always had this idea of inserting drawings into the text. For him, it is essential that the text and the drawing work together, even though he is not at all an author of children’s literature or an illustrator. It shows the very personal importance that this text had for him and how much this text clings to his own childhood which is an absolutely decisive moment”, explains Anne Monier-Vanryb, curator of the exhibition.
Thanks to these manuscripts, we realize that like a director, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry did not hesitate to cut scenes from his story or modify characters. We then discover that a snail or a butterfly hunter had to take part in the story before being eliminated by the author.
A coveted legacy
Another treasure exhibited in Paris: the watercolor of the Little Prince, certainly one of the most famous drawings of the character, which can be found on page 12 of the book, where the famous “Draw me a sheep” is written. .
Faced with the still current success and rights around this work, is the legacy of Saint-Exupéry difficult to manage? “You have to be a little harsh sometimes to enforce the integrity of the work, but the Little Prince belongs to each of us, so it is above all a great pleasure to share this work with millions of fans around the world, from all nationalities, ages or generations”, assures Olivier d’Agay, great-nephew of Saint-Exupéry and director of the Antoine de Saint-Exupéry Foundation.