Jean Cocteau

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Jean Cocteau
Cocteau in 1923
Born
Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau

(1889-07-05)5 July 1889
Died11 October 1963(1963-10-11) (aged 74)
Other namesThe Frivolous Prince
Occupations
  • Poet
  • playwright
  • novelist
  • film director
  • visual artist
  • designer
Years active1908–1963
Partners
  • Raymond Radiguet (1919–1923)
  • Jean Bourgoint (1925)
  • Jean Desbordes (1926–1933)
  • Marcel Khill (1933–1937)
  • Jean Marais (1937–1947)
  • Édouard Dermit (1947–1963)
Websitejeancocteau.net
Signature

Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau (

Dadaist movements and an influential figure in early 20th century art.[1] The National Observer suggested that, "of the artistic generation whose daring gave birth to Twentieth Century Art, Cocteau came closest to being a Renaissance man."[2]
.

He is best known for his novels Le Grand Écart (1923),

Orphic Trilogy. He was described as "one of [the] avant-garde's most successful and influential filmmakers" by AllMovie.[3] Cocteau, according to Annette Insdorf, "left behind a body of work unequalled for its variety of artistic expression."[2]

Though his body of work encompassed many different mediums, Cocteau insisted on calling himself a poet, classifying the great variety of his works – poems, novels, plays, essays, drawings, films – as "poésie", "poésie de roman", "poésie de thêatre", "poésie critique", "poésie graphique" and "poésie cinématographique".[4]

Biography

Early life

Cocteau was born in Maisons-Laffitte, Yvelines, to Georges Cocteau and his wife, Eugénie Lecomte, a socially prominent Parisian family. His father, a lawyer and amateur painter, committed suicide when Cocteau was nine. From 1900 to 1904, Cocteau attended the Lycée Condorcet where he met and began a relationship with schoolmate Pierre Dargelos, who reappeared throughout Cocteau's work, "John Cocteau: Erotic Drawings."[5] He left home at fifteen. He published his first volume of poems, Aladdin's Lamp, at nineteen. Cocteau soon became known in Bohemian artistic circles as The Frivolous Prince, the title of a volume he published at twenty-two. Edith Wharton described him as a man "to whom every great line of poetry was a sunrise, every sunset the foundation of the Heavenly City..."[6]

Early career

Henry and Rose Pearlman Collection, on long-term loan to the Princeton University Art Museum
Le combattant by Jean Cocteau, c. 1940, ink and ink wash on paper, 26.5 x 21 cm. Private collection
Portrait of Jean Cocteau by Federico de Madrazo y Ochoa, c. 1910–1912
Érik Satie
, Parade, thème de Jean Cocteau

In his early twenties, Cocteau became associated with the writers

Diaghilev, with sets by Picasso, the libretto by Apollinaire and the music by Erik Satie. "If it had not been for Apollinaire in uniform," wrote Cocteau, "with his skull shaved, the scar on his temple and the bandage around his head, women would have gouged our eyes out with hairpins."[7]

An important exponent of

Le Boeuf sur le Toit, a name that Cocteau himself had a hand in picking. The popularity was due in no small measure to the presence of Cocteau and his friends.[8]

Friendship with Raymond Radiguet

Marie Laurencin, Portrait de Jean Cocteau, 1921

In 1918 he met the French poet Raymond Radiguet. They collaborated extensively, socialized, and undertook many journeys and vacations together. Cocteau also got Radiguet exempted from military service. Admiring of Radiguet's great literary talent, Cocteau promoted his friend's works in his artistic circle and arranged for the publication by Grasset of Le Diable au corps (a largely autobiographical story of an adulterous relationship between a married woman and a younger man), exerting his influence to have the novel awarded the "Nouveau Monde" literary prize. Some contemporaries and later commentators thought there might have been a romantic component to their friendship.[9] Cocteau himself was aware of this perception, and worked earnestly to dispel the notion that their relationship was sexual in nature.[10]

There is disagreement over Cocteau's reaction to Radiguet's sudden death in 1923, with some claiming that it left him stunned, despondent and prey to

Les Enfants Terribles, was written in a week during a strenuous opium weaning. In Opium: Journal of drug rehabilitation [fr], he recounts the experience of his recovery from opium addiction in 1929. His account, which includes vivid pen-and-ink illustrations, alternates between his moment-to-moment experiences of drug withdrawal and his current thoughts about people and events in his world. Cocteau was supported throughout his recovery by his friend and correspondent, Catholic philosopher Jacques Maritain. Under Maritain's influence Cocteau made a temporary return to the sacraments of the Catholic Church
. He again returned to the Church later in life and undertook a number of religious art projects.

Further works

On 15 June 1926 Cocteau's play

Théâtre Sarah Bernhardt in Paris on 30 May 1927. In 1929 one of his most celebrated and well known works, the novel Les Enfants terribles was published.[4]

In 1930 Cocteau made his first film

1940–1944

Tribute to René Clair: I Married a Witch, Jean Cocteau (1945), a set design for the Théâtre de la Mode.

Throughout his life, Cocteau tried to maintain a distance from political movements, confessing to a friend that "my politics are non-existent."

antiracism.[14] He praised the French republic for serving as a haven for the persecuted, and applauded Picasso's anti-war painting Guernica as a cross that "Franco would always carry on his shoulder."[15] In 1940, Cocteau signed a petition circulated by the Ligue internationale contre l'antisémitisme which protested the rise of racism and antisemitism in France, and declared himself "ashamed of his white skin" after witnessing the plight of colonized peoples during his travels.[14]

Although in 1938 Cocteau had compared

Henry Millon de Montherlant, the publisher Gaston Gallimard and the Nazi legal scholar Carl Schmitt.[16] In his diary, Cocteau accused France of disrespect towards Hitler and speculated on the Führer's sexuality. Cocteau effusively praised Breker's sculptures in an article entitled 'Salut à Breker' published in 1942. This piece caused him to be arraigned on charges of collaboration after the war, though he was cleared of any wrongdoing and had used his contacts for his failed attempt to save friends such as Max Jacob.[17] Later, after growing closer with communists such as Louis Aragon, Cocteau would name Joseph Stalin as "the only great politician of the era."[18]

In 1940, Le Bel Indifférent, Cocteau's play written for and starring Édith Piaf (who died the day before Cocteau), was enormously successful.[19]

Later years

Cocteau's later years are mostly associated with his films. Cocteau's films, most of which he both wrote and directed, were particularly important in introducing the avant-garde into French cinema and influenced to a certain degree the upcoming French New Wave genre.[3]

Following

Les Parents terribles (1948), and Orpheus (1949). His final film, Le Testament d'Orphée (The Testament of Orpheus) (1960), featured appearances by Picasso and matador Luis Miguel Dominguín, along with Yul Brynner
, who also helped finance the film.

In 1945 Cocteau was one of several designers who created sets for the Théâtre de la Mode. He drew inspiration from filmmaker René Clair while making Tribute to René Clair: I Married a Witch. The maquette is described in his "Journal 1942–1945", in his entry for 12 February 1945:

I saw the model of my set. Fashion bores me, but I am amused by the set and fashion placed together. It is a smoldering maid's room. One discovers an aerial view of Paris through the wall and ceiling holes. It creates vertigo. On the iron bed lies a fainted bride. Behind her stand several dismayed ladies. On the right, a very elegant lady washes her hands in a flophouse basin. Through the unhinged door on the left, a lady enters with raised arms. Others are pushed against the walls. The vision provoking this catastrophe is a bride-witch astride a broom, flying through the ceiling, her hair and train streaming.

In 1956 Cocteau decorated the Chapelle Saint-Pierre in Villefranche-sur-Mer with mural paintings. The following year he also decorated the marriage hall at the Hôtel de Ville in Menton.[20]

Private life

Jean Cocteau never hid his

Le Livre blanc (translated as The White Paper or The White Book),[21]
published anonymously in 1928. He never repudiated its authorship and a later edition of the novel features his foreword and drawings. The novel begins:

As far back as I can remember, and even at an age when the mind does not yet influence the senses, I find traces of my love of boys. I have always loved the strong sex that I find legitimate to call the fair sex. My misfortunes came from a society that condemns the rare as a crime and forces us to reform our inclinations.

Frequently his work, either literary (

homoerotica
have been available to the general public.

In the 1930s, Cocteau is rumoured to have had a very brief affair with Princess

Natalie Paley, the daughter of a Romanov Grand Duke and herself a sometime actress, model, and former wife of couturier Lucien Lelong.[22]

Cocteau's longest-lasting relationships were with French actors

(1949).

Death

Cocteau died of a heart attack at his château in Milly-la-Forêt, Essonne, France, on 11 October 1963 at the age of 74. His friend, French singer Édith Piaf, died the day before but that was announced on the morning of Cocteau's day of death; it has been said, in a story which is almost certainly apocryphal, that his heart failed upon hearing of Piaf's death. Cocteau's health had already been in decline for several months, and he had previously had a severe heart attack on 22 April 1963. A more plausible suggestion for the reason behind this decline in health has been proposed by author Roger Peyrefitte,[24] who notes that Cocteau had been devastated by a breach with his longtime friend, socialite and notable patron Francine Weisweiller, as a result of an affair she had been having with a minor writer.[25] Weisweiller and Cocteau did not reconcile until shortly before Cocteau's death.

According to his wishes Cocteau is buried beneath the floor of the Chapelle Saint-Blaise des Simples in Milly-la-Forêt.[26] The epitaph on his gravestone set in the floor of the chapel reads: "I stay with you" ("Je reste avec vous").

Honours and awards

In 1955, Cocteau was made a member of the

The Royal Academy of Belgium
.

During his life, Cocteau was commander of the

Legion of Honor, Member of the Mallarmé Academy, German Academy (Berlin), American Academy, Mark Twain (U.S.A) Academy, Honorary President of the Cannes Film Festival
, Honorary President of the France-Hungary Association and President of the Jazz Academy and of the Academy of the Disc.

Works

Literature

Poetry

  • 1909: La Lampe d'Aladin
  • 1910: Le Prince frivole
  • 1912: La Danse de Sophocle
  • 1919: Ode à PicassoLe Cap de Bonne-Espérance
  • 1920: Escale. Poésies (1917–1920)
  • 1922: Vocabulaire
  • 1923: La Rose de FrançoisPlain-Chant
  • 1925: Cri écrit
  • 1926: L'Ange Heurtebise
  • 1927: Opéra
  • 1934: Mythologie
  • 1939: Énigmes
  • 1941: Allégories
  • 1945: Léone
  • 1946: La Crucifixion
  • 1948: Poèmes
  • 1952: Le Chiffre septLa Nappe du Catalan (in collaboration with Georges Hugnet)
  • 1953: Dentelles d'éternitéAppoggiatures
  • 1954: Clair-obscur
  • 1958: Paraprosodies
  • 1961: Cérémonial espagnol du PhénixLa Partie d'échecs
  • 1962: Le Requiem
  • 1968: Faire-Part (posthume)

Novels

Theatre

Poetry and criticism

  • 1918: Le Coq et l'Arlequin
  • 1920: Carte blanche
  • 1922: Le Secret professionnel
  • 1926: Le Rappel à l'ordreLettre à Jacques MaritainLe Numéro Barbette
  • 1930: Opium
  • 1932: Essai de critique indirecte
  • 1935: Portraits-Souvenir
  • 1937: Mon premier voyage (Around the World in 80 Days)
  • 1943: Le Greco
  • 1946: La Mort et les Statues (photos by Pierre Jahan)
  • 1947: Le Foyer des artistesLa Difficulté d'être
  • 1949: Lettres aux AméricainsReines de la France
  • 1951: Jean Marais – A Discussion about Cinematography (with André Fraigneau)
  • 1952: Gide vivant
  • 1953: Journal d'un inconnu. Démarche d'un poète
  • 1955: Colette (Discourse on the reception at the Royal Academy of Belgium) – Discourse on the reception at the Académie Française
  • 1956: Discours d'Oxford
  • 1957: Entretiens sur le musée de Dresde (with Louis Aragon) – La Corrida du 1er mai
  • 1950: Poésie critique I
  • 1960: Poésie critique II
  • 1962: Le Cordon ombilical
  • 1963: La Comtesse de Noailles, oui et non
  • 1964: Portraits-Souvenir (posthumous; A discussion with Roger Stéphane)
  • 1965: Entretiens avec André Fraigneau (posthumous)
  • 1973: Jean Cocteau par Jean Cocteau (posthumous; A discussion with William Fielfield)
  • 1973: Du cinématographe (posthumous). Entretiens sur le cinématographe (posthumous)

Journalistic poetry

  • 1935–1938 (posthumous)

Film

Director

Scriptwriter

Dialogue writer

Director of Photography

Artworks

  • 1924: Dessins
  • 1925: Le Mystère de Jean l'oiseleur
  • 1926: Maison de santé
  • 1929: 25 dessins d'un dormeur
  • 1935: 60 designs for Les Enfants Terribles
  • 1940: Le combattant
  • 1941: Drawings in the margins of Chevaliers de la Table ronde
  • 1948: Drôle de ménage
  • 1957: La Chapelle Saint-Pierre, Villefranche-sur-Mer
  • 1958: La Salle des mariages, City Hall of MentonLa Chapelle Saint-Pierre (lithographies)
  • 1958: Un Arlequin (The Harlequin)
  • 1959: Gondol des morts
  • 1960: Chapelle Saint-Blaise-des-Simples, Milly-la-Forêt
  • 1960: Stained glass windows of the Church of Saint Maximin, Metz, France[29][circular reference]

Recordings

Journals

  • 1946: La Belle et la Bête (film journal)
  • 1949: Maalesh (journal of a stage production)
  • 1983: Le Passé défini (posthumous)
  • 1989: Journal, 1942–1945

Stamps

See also

Footnotes

  1. ^ "Jean Cocteau". www.artnet.com. Archived from the original on 19 March 2022. Retrieved 29 December 2021.
  2. ^ a b "Jean Cocteau". Poetry Foundation. 28 December 2021. Archived from the original on 29 December 2021. Retrieved 29 December 2021.
  3. ^ a b "Biography". AllMovie. Archived from the original on 5 October 2018. Retrieved 5 October 2018.
  4. ^ a b c Francis Steegmuller "Jean Cocteau: A Brief Biography", Jean Cocteau and the French Scene, Abbeville Press 1984
  5. .
  6. ^ Wharton, Edith (17 December 2014) [1st pub. 1934]. "Chapter 11". A Backward Glance. eBooks@Adelaide. Archived from the original on 29 August 2017. Retrieved 9 April 2016.
  7. .
  8. ^ Thompson, Daniella (6 May 2002). "How the Ox got its name, and other Parisian legends". The Boeuf Chronicles. Musica Brasiliensis. Archived from the original on 25 August 2011. Retrieved 9 April 2016. (Autoplaying music on site)
  9. ^ Williams 2008, p. 32.
  10. ^ Francis Steegmuller (1970). Cocteau, A Biography. Boston, Little, Brown. Monsieur, I have just received your letter and must reply despite my regret at being unable to explain the inexplicable. It is possible that my friendship for your son and my deep admiration for his gifts (which are becoming increasingly apparent) are of an uncommon intensity, and that from the outside it is hard to make out how far my feelings go. His literary future is of primary consideration with me: he is a kind of prodigy. Scandal would spoil all this freshness. You cannot possibly believe for a second that I do not try to avoid that by all the means in my power
  11. ^ "Jean Cocteau Biography – Jean Cocteau Website". Netcomuk.co.uk. 11 October 1963. Archived from the original on 12 February 2012. Retrieved 14 March 2012.
  12. ^ Neal Oxenhandler "The Theater of Jean Cocteau", Jean Cocteau and the French scene, Abbeville Press 1984
  13. ^ Arnaud, Claude (2016). Jean Cocteau: A Life. Yale University Press. p. 718.
  14. ^ a b c Arnaud, Claude (2016). Jean Cocteau: A Life. Yale University Press. p. 628.
  15. ^ Arnaud, Claude (2016). Jean Cocteau: A Life. Yale University Press. p. 576.
  16. .
  17. ^ Williams 2008, pp. 182–185.
  18. ^ Arnaud, Claude (2016). Jean Cocteau: A Life. Yale University Press. p. 745.
  19. ^ Cocteau, Jean. "Musée SACEM : Edith Piaf et Jean Cocteau". musee.sacem.fr (in French). Archived from the original on 15 April 2021. Retrieved 23 August 2020.
  20. ^ Jean Cocteau and the French scene, Abbeville Press 1984, p. 227
  21. ^ "Cocteau's White Paper on Homophobia". rictornorton.co.uk. Archived from the original on 27 September 2017. Retrieved 24 April 2018.
  22. .
  23. ^ "Légendes d'Écran Noir: Jean Marais". ecrannoir.fr. Archived from the original on 8 July 2017. Retrieved 5 July 2017.
  24. ^ Propos secrets, Paris: Albin Michel, 1977
  25. ^ "Francine Weisweiller". www.telegraph.co.uk. January 2004. Archived from the original on 19 August 2019. Retrieved 19 August 2019.
  26. ^ Wilson, Scott. Resting Places: The Burial Sites of More Than 14,000 Famous Persons, 3d ed.: 2 (Kindle Location 8971). McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers. Kindle Edition.
  27. from the original on 3 August 2020. Retrieved 2 September 2019.
  28. ^ Coriolan, archived from the original on 9 June 2019, retrieved 31 August 2019
  29. ^ fr:Église Saint-Maximin de Metz

References

Further reading

External links