KESSEL (Joseph). [Iacovleff]. Unsigned autograph manuscript. 1965. 5 leaves in-8, 13.5 x 21 cm, handwritten on the recto, and a few lines on 3 versos. Draft for the "Introduction to the Alexandre Iacovleff exhibition", Paris, Galerie Vendôme, 1965; with erasures and additions. A captivating account of the incredible encounter in 1919 between the young Kessel and the painter Iacovleff, in a carriage of the Cie des wagons-lits d'Extrême Orient. By way of an account of Mongolia, Iacovleff "scattered drawings, sanguines and watercolours (...) all over his bunk. What vigour and accuracy in the line, what sculptural fullness in the volumes! What a gift for penetrating and transcribing muscles and faces! [...] We shared a common trait: curiosity, a passion for landscapes and people, the need to escape in life and in art (...). From that moment on, we were friends for ever".