The Four Horsemen

Jarry’s collaborations and friendship with Remy de Gourmont ended due to a prank Jarry and his friends played on his mentor’s mistress. After five issues of L’Ymagier (which was largely bankrolled by the mistress), he started his own magazine: Perhinderion. The title is a Breton word for “pilgrimages.” In his editorial statement, Jarry compared himself to the simple men who peddled religious keepsakes to the devout masses. Jarry was much more ambitious, however. It was his intention to publish Albrecht Dürer’s complete works in the magazine over time. The expense of the luxurious venture exhausted his finances after two issues.

Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528), The Four Horsemen, from The Apocalypse, 1498, in Perhinderion, no. 1 (1896). The Morgan Library & Museum, New York. Gift of Robert J. and Linda Klieger Stillman, 2017. PML 197086.