Francis ESMENARD (1947-) - Lot 143

Second Exclusive Session

**La Forêt des Illustres — The Pierre Lhoste Collection**

For a second summer auction held exclusively online on Drouot from **August 5 to September 13**, with bidding closing on **Sunday, September 13, at 6:00 p.m.**, Trianon Enchères is honored to present a collection as rare as it is deeply moving, drawn from the personal collection of **Pierre Lhoste (1913–1984)**.

A journalist, radio personality, and privileged witness to his era, Pierre Lhoste devoted his career to recording the words of the figures who shaped the 20th century. Through his encounters and interviews, he devised a ritual as simple as it was original: inviting each of his interviewees to sign their name and then spontaneously draw a tree.

From this unique approach emerged an exceptional collection, straddling the line between an autograph, an intimate portrait, and artistic creation.

Each sheet thus transcends a mere handwritten record. It preserves the immediate memory of an encounter, the spontaneity of a gesture, and the sensitive imprint of its creator. In a few strokes of ink—sometimes confident, sometimes fragile, serious, or mischievous—a personality is revealed.

Writers, artists, actors, scientists, thinkers, and political figures have thus left their signatures accompanied by a tree, which has become the poetic symbol of their appearance on Pierre Lhoste’s show.

Brought together for the first time in a single auction, these precious documents form a gallery of portraits unlike any other. Through this fascinating forest of signatures, a vivid panorama of the intellectual, artistic, scientific, and cultural life of several generations emerges.

A rare and deeply human collection, in which history is written by hand, drawn in ink, and takes root in the memory of encounters.

**A unique summer auction, blending memory, creativity, and handwritten confidences.**