Le temps d'un éclair. Autograph poem signed.

Folio (ca. 267 x 407 mm). 1 p. (17 lines). Framed and glazed (457 x 599 mm). Spectacular manuscript written on paper with a gilt-stamped border and illustrated with a photograph pasted and captioned by Paul Éluard. The poem "Le temps d'un éclair" was published in Éluard's anthology "La Vie immédiate" (1932): "Elle n'est pas là. / La femme au tablier guette la pluie aux vitres / En spectacle tous les nuages jouent au plus fin / Une fillette de peu de poids / Passée au bleu / Joue sur un canapé crevé / Le silence a des remords [.]". - The small photograph (60 x 42 mm), pasted to the left of the first verse, shows the head and torso of a nude young woman. Éluard quotes his poem in the caption: "Une fillette de peu de poids / Passée au bleu" ("A young girl of little weight / Vanished into the blue"). The slight fading of the photograph even underscores its appropriateness as a congenial illustration of Éluard's poem: the allegory of a young girl's disappearance. - Traces of folds. With minor stains due to abrasions. Formerly in the collection of André Breton. - P. Éluard, La Vie immédiate (Paris, Éditions des Cahiers libres, 1932).