Original Cocteau Poster "Lithographies

Description: Posthumous lithographic poster advertising exhibition of Cocteau's work Galerie Pont des Arts Poteries by Jean Cocteau Artist: Jean Cocteau Medium: Original (RED) Lithograph, c.1958 Dimensions: 19.3 x 25.8 in, 49 x 65.5 cm At bottom margin: "Mourlot imp." Poster shows signs of having been rolled up. Otherwise it is in near fine condition. From Mourlot Editions website showing that this particular poster is "SOLD OUT" Jean Cocteau(1889-1963) French Cocteau was a playwright, a novelist, artist, poet, designer, and filmmaker. He truly was a renaissance man living in Paris through the city’s great artistic heyday. During the years of the Great War, Cocteau began to associate himself with artists across differing spheres, including the Russian ballet director Diaghilev, composers Stravinsky and Satie, and Picasso; however, it was not until his later life that Cocteau added art to his creative endeavors and experimented with pastels, prints, and posters. He eventually took up easel painting in 1950. Cocteau was born in 1889 into a wealthy family in a small town near Paris. A difficult young boy, his childhood was fraught with unrest: Cocteau’s father killed himself when he was about 10 years old and in 1900 he was enrolled at a private school, the well respected Lycée Condorcet, only to be expelled in 1904. In the few years Cocteau spent studying at the Lycée he befriended a pupil called Pierre Dargelos, an older schoolmate who first introduced his contemporaries to the virile world of homo-eroticism. Dargelos was a physically imposing boy, athletic, unusually well-endowed for his age (if Cocteau's later writings are to be believed), and the sexual initiations he exposed his fellow pupils to would have a deep and long-lasting influence on the artist's future works. After his expulsion, Cocteau ran away to Marseilles, taking temporary refuge in the red light district and fabricating a new identity for himself. His attempt to escape into the underworld was short lived, however, and he was later discovered by the local police and returned to the custody of his uncle. Then, around the age of 17 or 18, Cocteau began an affair with the actress Madeleine Carlier, who was 30 years old at the time, though she later ended the relationship. In these early years Cocteau began cultivating a Bohemian streak that, alongside his sexual ambivalence, would characterize the fullness with which he lived his life. By the late 1900s and early 1910s, he had already begun to associate himself with a host of young artists who would have an impact on his career: Edouard de Max, a popular Parisian tragedian at the time who first encouraged the young poet to write; Sergei Diaghilev, the Russian agent in charge of the Ballets Russes, at whose instigation Cocteau wrote a libretto for the exotic ballet Le Dieu Bleu; and the composer Igor Stravinsky, whom Cocteau met after he had recently completed his infamous The Rite of Spring. But perhaps no other artistic figure impressed Cocteau as much as Pablo Picasso. Almost every painting, print and sketch Cocteau made in his life, his looseness of line, his strong profile portraits, his mythological subjects, can be traced back to Picasso's influence. Cocteau first met the artist at the start of the First World War. With the outbreak of the conflict, Cocteau volunteered to work in an ambulance service, having not been conscripted, but was arrested and returned to civilian duties in 1915 after falling in with an unruly group of soldiers. Upon his return the two young men were introduced to one another and quickly established a close friendship, Cocteau convincing Picasso to design sets for an upcoming ballet production, Parade. Directed by Diaghilev, Picasso's services were enlisted to help with the design of the sets. The French composer Erik Satie had written the music, a surreal score that, when combined with Picasso's vibrant modern staging, made for an exciting and revolutionary production. Though the Paris opening performances were disastrous, within a few years the ballet found success and Picasso and Cocteau continued to meet as friends and to discuss other potential projects. During their time spent together, a frequent meeting place was in the arena seats of a traditional bullfight. Picasso and Cocteau shared a joint love of the macho-heroism of the sport, of its theatrics and its flamboyance. For both artists, the modern-day matador drew parallels to Ancient Greek athletes and Olympian Gods, though for Cocteau these masculine displays of strength and prowess had a more personal and intimate resonance too.

Price: 2000 USD

Location: Northford, Connecticut

End Time: 2023-08-23T17:57:24.000Z

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