‘PÉNIL DES MENNIRS’, 1943
Provenance
Untraced.
Exhibited
London, Mayor Gallery, 1947, (paintings) No. 2.
Known only from the exhibition catalogue, the title (which appears between quotation marks) is almost certainly a misprint for ‘Pénil des Menhirs’. The phrase, which can be translated as ‘the pubic arch of menhirs’, occurs in a poem by Alfred Jarry, best known as author of the Ubu plays.
Parmi les bruyères, pénil des menhirs,
Selon un pourboire, le sourd-muet qui rôde
Autour du trou du champ des os des martyres
Tâte avec sa lanterne au bout d’une corde.
Colquhoun may have known the original poem, which occurs in Les Jours et les Nuits (1897) or she may have discovered the line in Breton’s Nadja, where it is quoted.