Max Jacob | |
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_-_1934_-_Foto_Carl_van_Vechten%2c_Library_of_Congress.jpg) Max Jacob in 1934 | |
| Born | (1876-07-12)12 July 1876 Quimper, Finistère, Brittany, France |
| Died | 5 March 1944(1944-03-05) (aged 67) Drancy Deportation Camp, France |
| Pen name | Léon David Morven le Gaëlique |
| Literary movement | School of Paris |
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_-_Ritratto_di_Max_Jacob_(1876-1944)_2.jpg)
Max Jacob (French:[maksʒakɔb]; 12 July 1876 – 5 March 1944) was a French poet, painter, writer, andcritic.
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After spending his childhood inQuimper, Brittany, he enrolled in the Paris Colonial School, which he left in 1897 for an artistic career. He was one of the first friendsPablo Picasso made in Paris. They met in the summer of 1901, and it was Jacob who helped the young artist learn French.[1] Later, on the Boulevard Voltaire, he shared a room with Picasso,[2] who remained a lifelong friend (and was represented as the monk in his paintingThree Musicians, which Picasso painted in 1921). Jacob introduced him toGuillaume Apollinaire, who in turn introduced Picasso toGeorges Braque. He would become close friends withJean Cocteau,Jean Hugo,Christopher Wood andAmedeo Modigliani, who painted his portrait in 1916. He also befriended and encouraged the artist Romanin, otherwise known as French politician, and future Resistance leaderJean Moulin. Moulin's famousnom de guerre Max is presumed to be selected in honor of Jacob.
Jacob, who wasJewish, claimed to have had a vision of Christ in 1909, andconverted toCatholicism. He was hopeful that this conversion would alleviate his homosexual tendencies.[3]
Max Jacob is regarded as an important link between thesymbolists and thesurrealists, as can be seen in his prose poemsLe cornet à dés (The Dice Box, 1917 – the 1948Gallimard edition was illustrated byJean Hugo) and in his paintings, exhibitions of which were held in New York City in 1930 and 1938.
His writings include the novelSaint Matorel (1911), thefree versesLe laboratoire central (1921), andLa défense de Tartuffe (1919), which expounds his philosophical and religious attitudes.
The famous psychoanalystJacques Lacan attributed the quote "The truth is always new" to Jacob.[4]
Having moved outside Paris in May 1936, to settle inSaint-Benoît-sur-Loire, Loiret, Max Jacob was arrested on 24 February 1944 by theGestapo, and interned atOrléans prison (prisoner #15872).[5]Jewish by birth, Jacob's brother Gaston had been previously arrested in January 1944, and deported to the concentration campAuschwitz along with their sister Myrthe-Lea; her husband was also deported by theNazis at this time. A cousin,Andrée Jacob, survived by living under an assumed name and worked in the Resistance movementNoyautage des administrations publiques.[6] Following his incarceration at Orléans, Max was then transferred toDrancy internment camp from where he was to be transported in the next convoy to Auschwitz. However, said to be suffering from bronchial pneumonia, Max Jacob died on 5 March in the infirmary of La Cité de la Muette, a former housing block which served as the internment camp known as Drancy.[7]
First interred inIvry after the war ended, his remains were transferred in 1949 by his artist friendsJean Cassou andRené Iché (who sculpted the tomb of the poet) to the cemetery atSaint-Benoît-sur-Loire in theLoiretdépartement.[6]
As well as hisnom d'état civil, or regular name, Jacob worked under at least two pseudonyms, Léon David and Morven le Gaëlique.
German actorUdo Kier plays Jacob in the 2004 filmModigliani. In the 2006 filmMonsieur Max, which deals with the life of Jacob from the First World War until his death, he was played byJean-Claude Brialy; this was Brialy's last film. In the 2013 Spanish filmLa banda Picasso, Jacob is played byLionel Abelanski.[8]T. R. Knight portrays Jacob in the 2018 season of the television seriesGenius, which focuses on the life and career of Pablo Picasso.
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