384 - Jean COCTEAU (1889–1963)

Jean COCTEAU (1889–1963) Face, 1963 Mixed media on "Santo Sospir St Jean Cap-Ferrat" letterhead Signed and inscribed "Warm regards from Jean Cocteau" in the lower left corner 21 x 13.5 cm Framed under glass We thank Dominique Bert for confirming the authenticity of this work. A certificate from the “Expertise Cocteau – Archives Guédras” association can be provided upon request at the purchaser’s expense. Description: First and foremost a poet, but also an illustrator, playwright, novelist, and filmmaker, Jean Cocteau (1889–1963) was at the heart of the avant-garde throughout the 20th century. In 1917, he conceived the libretto for *Parade* for Serge Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, set to music by Erik Satie, with sets and costumes by Pablo Picasso and choreography by Léonide Massine, a production for which Guillaume Apollinaire coined the term “surrealism.” The letterhead on this sheet refers to the Villa Santo Sospir in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, owned by his friend and patron Francine Weisweiller. Invited there in 1950, Cocteau covered the walls, ceilings, and doors with what he called “tattoos,” transforming the house into a “tattooed villa” populated by mythological figures such as Actaeon, the Bacchantes, and Narcissus. He returned there regularly to paint, write, and film until his death in 1963. The face—whether the profile of Orpheus or the figure of an ephebe—is one of the most consistent motifs in his graphic work, rendered with a fluid line that prioritizes drawing over color.