Lot 313: An amusing Yves Saint Laurent Christmas card drawing featuring La Vilaine Lulu

Saint Laurent, Yves

Christmas drawing for Fernando Sanchez, featuring “La Vilaine Lulu” and a Christmas rat. No date (but after 1961), signed "de la part de l'ami Yves et de l'ami Pierre" in Yves Saint Laurent's hand. Ink and colored pencil on 3 Place Vauban stationery. 10.5 x 8 inches. Framed. Old folds.

A charming hand-drawn Christmas card by Yves Saint Laurent, given to his close friend and fellow clothing designer Fernando Sanchez. The two met as young men in fashion school, the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture, and would remain close friends for the rest of their lives. They often spent vacations close to each other in Morocco - Fernando purchased Yves' first house in Marrakech, Dar El Hanch, after Yves and Pierre Berger bought the much larger Majorelle. The card features Yves' comic book character, a sort of anti-Madeline, the mischievous girl La Vilaine Lulu ("Ugly Lulu"), who is depicted holding a wrapped present and saying, "For Fernando, a nice gift." Lulu is accompanied by a large Christmas rat who asks, "For what? For what?" The answer, written below and underlined in red, is that the present is something, a box perhaps, to store "fumette," a slang term for dope, in this case probably hashish. While the card is undated, it was likely drawn in the 1960s or 70s - Yves started to draw Lulu in 1956 (a printed edition of the comic was published in 1967), he moved to 3 Place Vauban in 1961 and, after buying a house in Morocco in 1966, began to live a more bohemian lifestyle.

Provenance: Gift of Yves Saint Laurent to Fernando Sanchez (1935-2006), thence by descent to the current owner. For more information about Yves and Fernando, please see the essay at the following link -