Jean Cocteau

This is one of several photos Lynes made of Jean Cocteau,

and it impresses as being in the Frenchman's own style.

 

Jean Cocteau and Marcel Khill

George Platt Lynes often used this director's chair in his portrait work.  You'll see it twice more in today's series.  Here we have Jean Cocteau in it.  Lynes took several photos of the French artist.

This is a Lynes photo of Maurice Khill (1912-1940) who was a promising young film director and Cocteau's lover from about 1932 until his death.  Maurice was killed on the Alsatian Front in World War II because due to poor communications his unit counterattacked without knowing an armistice had been arranged.  That communications issue is a big reason the French lost the war.

 

Edouard

Herbert List took some memorable photos of Jean Cocteau's lover Edouard Dermit.

I think the art may be Cocteau's version of Polyphemus getting his eye poked out.

We'll see more of this large mural in a later post today.

 

Edouard Again

There is a cropped version of this List photo circulated that focuses more on Edouard Dermit's 

fine body.  As much as I like him, I prefer the full version showing Cocteau's art.

 

France Day, Part 2 - the Nude Drawings of Jean Cocteau

 

Jean Cocteau was a very complex and interesting figure who played a pre-eminent role in the French arts, letters, and cinematic worlds for a good stretch of the 20th Century.  (Click his label at right of go to Google for details.)  Our Friday art series will feature five of his male nude drawings.  Our first work has a simple and elegant realism to it that I like very much.

Seated derriere

Is this guy wearing a French sailor's cap in bed?  Lots of Cocteau's models seem to have worn military caps of some sort, making me think he had a thing for it.  He didn't do many derriere drawings without at least a hint of frontal package, but this one has none and is well done.

 

Unsigned

Although it appears to be unsigned, I've seen this drawing attributed to Cocteau by more 

than one reputable source.  I don't know if it is incomplete, but the shading on the lower part 

of the body doesn't match the upper, and the upper line elements seem faint.

 

What's wrong with this picture?

Although I suppose it's within the realm of human anatomical possibilities, this young man would have had to have had very long low hangers to achieve the visible package elements here.

 

Another pose

Heavier and hairier than Cocteau's usual models, this guy appeared 

in a different pose in an earlier Cocteau series.  I actually like this one better.

 

The Artistic French, Part 1 - More drawing by Cocteau

Doing another French double feature today, starting with some drawings by Jean Cocteau.

This one is called Homme Nu Debout, or Naked Man Standing.

 

I'd love to know the story behind this Cocteau drawing 

of a group of nude and seminude men.

 

This is a Cocteau illustration for Jean Genet's Querelle de Brest from 1947.

 

I included this Cocteau work not because of any overt eroticism,

but because it portrays masculinity on an almost cellular level.

 

This drawing which Cocteau called "The Lovers" looks unfinished,

and it has an odd scribble at upper right.  It's quite good regardless.

 

The Talented French, Part 2 - Jean Cocteau

Part two of our French art day focuses on the work of the amazing Jean Cocteau (1889-1963).  He was a poet, playwright, novelist, designer, filmmaker, visual artist, and critic.  He was also an open and unapologetic homosexual man whose work often reflected that fact.  For our purposes we will look at his homoerotic drawings, but this photo of his lover Edouard Dermit by the German photographer Herbert List (also gay) is a nice transition piece from today's earlier series.  

The Cocteau art piece behind Dermit is an oversized pastel drawing, Judith et Holopherne.

This untitled Cocteau work resembles some of his semi-abstract art pieces.

Cocteau called this, naturally enough, Man Undressing.

I don't have a title for this pen and ink drawing by Cocteau.

I don't know who took this interesting 1939 photo of Jean Cocteau.
Edited to add:  Laure Albin Guillot is the photographer.  See comment by lovernotafighter55.

The Nude Officer shows an interesting combination of pen and ink and coloring.

Cocteau did a number of nude drawing of military men including sailors.