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The Bouquet - Apollinaire Calligram Print, Flowers

The Bouquet - Apollinaire Calligram Print, Flowers

€35,00 EUR
€35,00 EUR
Taxes included. Shipping calculated at checkout.

Free shipping on orders over €50
  • Designed in France
  • 100% eco-friendly paper
  • Delivery in 5 business days.

"Let the flower open and let the fruit rot and let the seed sprout while the storms blow"

A vase and its bouquet, drawn in ink by Guillaume Apollinaire's own hand: every stem, every flower and the curve of the vase are lines of writing. A calligram print in black on cream paper, a drawing first and a poem second.

What is an Apollinaire calligram?

A calligram is a poem whose words are arranged to draw its subject. Guillaume Apollinaire turned it into a genre of its own in the early twentieth century: rain falls in slanting lines, a dove spreads wings made of words. In The Bouquet, the text does not describe the flowers, it forms them.

Is The Bouquet part of the Calligrammes collection?

No. Apollinaire wrote and drew this calligram in 1917 without giving it a title, and it does not appear in the book Calligrammes published in 1918. Editors refer to it as the bouquet calligram. It is a lesser-known, entirely handwritten piece.

What does the poem say?

The flowers carry fragments of memories, love and perfume: "and everything ends in perfume, remember it". The vase closes on an invitation to let life follow its course, even while the storms blow.

Which size should I choose?

The 12x16 in fits an entryway, a study or a kitchen, alone or in a gallery wall with other calligrams. The 20x28 in holds its own above a console, a sideboard or a bed. Sizes are standard, frame not included.

Who is it a gift for?

For a mother who loves flowers, on Mother's Day or a birthday; for a reader of Apollinaire; for a housewarming, as a bouquet that never wilts.

Lean in close and you'll see the letters aren't perfectly crisp. That's because they come from a page written by hand more than 100 years ago. Between a clean copy in a modern font and the real type of the period, we chose the real thing.

Specifications and sizes

Sizes: 12x16 in, 16x20 in, 20x28 in
Paper: thick eco-friendly matte paper
Printing: high resolution, long-lasting colors
Frame: not included
Print medium: poster, fine art print on matte paper
Theme: poetry, calligram, flowers
Delivery: Printed and shipped from a studio near you : most orders arrive in 5 business days

Posters sold individually

These posters need to be framed by you :)
We choose standard formats that are easy to frame!

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Close-up of the grain of our thick eco-friendly matte 170 gsm paper
The paper grain, up close.

Heure d'été Editions

Beautiful words deserve beautiful paper

These verses are set to be hung: a chosen typeface, measured margins, white space worked around the text. It is this layout that makes you want to read them again.

The paper is an uncoated matte 170 gsm. Its surface stays slightly fibrous, the ink sinks in, the light spreads across it. You read it the way you read a book.

It is eco-friendly paper from sustainably managed forests, and printed as close to you as possible to shorten transport.

Hanging a poem is not the same as reading it once. The text stays there, you catch two lines in passing, and the day pauses for a second. It is a moment you give yourself, and offer to those who live with you.

There is a quiet pleasure in living with French literature in the original. The poem keeps the language it was written in, and with it the sound the writer chose, which no translation quite carries over. On an English-speaking wall it stops being decoration and becomes something with a little cachet: a piece of France you can read on your way past, every morning.

It earns the large format. At 50x70 cm the text is read from across the room, and the page holds a wall the way a painting does.

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  • Exclusive creations, curated art

    Exclusive creations, curated art

    Our illustrations are created in our studio and found nowhere else. The poems and masterpieces are hand-picked, one by one: a curated collection, not a catalogue.

  • Responsible & local printing

    Responsible & local printing

    We print the posters as close to your home as possible!

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