Fine Books & Manuscripts

Poulain, Michel-Marie. Ecole de Paris. Brussels: Private Edition, 1960. Signed. Number 86 in a limitation of 100 copies. Red paper boards with black and gilt text. Original signed drawing in bold black marker bound into volume after half title; inscription, signature and portrait of a woman in blue ink on title. Twelve tipped in color plates. Hinges starting with splits at joints at bottom spine, gutter split, plates faded, corners bumped. Good. Sold with grouping of related ephemera, including 11 color snapshots, one signed by Poulain; exposition poster; business card; embossed postcard; sales receipt for three paintings (1963); declaration of authenticity, signed; and TLS (1965). Though not widely known, Michel-Marie Poulain was a pioneering French transgender artist and performer. Assigned male at birth, Poulain lived as a woman nearly their entire life, attending girls’ schools throughout childhood. After serving as a Senior-Sergeant during WWII, Poulain began painting and making stained glass, worked as a fashion model, performed in cabarets, and opened both a nightclub and art gallery. In 1954 Poulain published the autobiography “J’ai Choisi mon Sexe”.