Ballad of Francois Villon: The Wind (a.k.a.: "Flight")

 

Rico Lebrun

  1900 - 1964 (biography)

1945  

lithograph 

14 5/16 x 17 15/16" image 

pencil, lower right 

29 of 45  

pencil dated and editioned 

 

antique-white wove 

published 

artist 

16370 

$1,500.00 

Ballad of Francois Villon: The Wind is an acknowledgment of the tragic life of 15th century poet, murderer and thief, Francois Villon. This ballad that has a violent edge, an alienated figure, whose clothes are being ripped away by the wind, brandishes a knife in a life and death struggle. The French poet Francois Villon was born in Paris in 1431, and he became a student in arts. He received a bachelor degree from the University of Paris (The Sorbonne) in 1449 and a master degree in 1452. On June 5, 1455, at age 24, the first major recorded incident of his life occurred. A scuffle broke out between Villon and the priest Philippe Sermaise. Daggers were drawn and Sermaise, who is accused of having threatened and attacked Villon and drawn the first blood, received a dagger-thrust in return and died of his wounds. Villon fled, and was sentenced to banishment. Villon continued a life of thievery and skullduggery, continuing to chronicle it in his poems. He disappeared sometime around 1463.