PARIS (AFP).- The first known drawings by famed French poet Arthur Rimbaud when he was 10 and a handwritten poem given to his lover will go under the hammer in Paris on Wednesday.

The seven drawings, sketched in 1865 on two pages of a notebook, are valued by auction house Sotheby's at between 100,000 and 150,000 euros ($108,000-$162,000).

"These exceptional drawings, still privately owned, are the only ones that have been attributed with certainty to the poet," Sotheby experts Frederique Parent and Benoit Puttemans wrote in the presentation of the works.

"They reflect the universe of a young poet who is already critical of the world around him."

Entitled "The pleasures of youth", the collection includes six pen-and-ink sketches and a seventh in pencil.

Signed A. Rimbaud, the cartoon-like images -- some of which have speech bubbles -- were drawn on two sides of a page from a notebook.

"These drawings reflect the universe of a child of his age: games imitating the lives of adults, sledging, games involving navigation, swings or gardening," Sotheby's said.

"More specifically, the boy is reflecting his family circle."

Prize for good marks
Also up for auction is a handwritten version of his 1872 poem "The Cassis River" given to his lover and fellow poet Paul Verlaine a year before their fiery breakup.

That poem, the only handwritten one left in private hands, is valued by Sotheby's at between 200,000 and 300,000 euros.

Other items from Rimbaud, whose brilliant and passionate youth and exotic later adventures inspired generations of artists from Surrealists to rock stars, are also going under the hammer.

One is a book Rimbaud received as a prize at school for getting good marks when he was 15.

The other is a receipt that dates back to Rimbaud's time as an arms trafficker in Africa, long after he had abandoned poetry.

The receipt recaps two months of Rimbaud's weapons' sales in 1889, organised for King Menelik II in what was then known as Abyssinia, and is now Ethiopia.

Rimbaud had a tempestuous two-year romance with Verlaine when he was a teenager, which ended in a drunken row in 1873 when Verlaine shot Rimbaud, hitting him in the wrist.

The boy poet, celebrated for his works including "The Drunken Boat" and "Illuminations", abandoned poetry at age 21. He then travelled throughout Europe, followed by Indonesia in 1876, and on to the Middle East and Africa.

His legend and works influenced not only Surrealists but the US Beat poets, songwriters like Bob Dylan and Patti Smith, and filmmakers who have sought to capture his rebellious spirit.


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