Francis Poulenc, 1924

A sensitive and early portrait in ink of the important French composer Francis Poulenc, by his friend and collaborator Jean Cocteau. Signed and dated at the right: "Jean / 1924 / Monte Carlo." Paper lightly toned, mounted on white card with some large chips and mounting remnants from a previous framing; the drawing itself intact and in fine condition. 8.25 x 10.75 inches (20.8 x 27.4 cm), mounted to 10 x 12 inches (25.5 x 30.8 cm). Matted and framed under UV-Plexi.

Cocteau came to know Poulenc as a young composer through his association with Les Six, the group of early-twentieth-century French composers which also included Milhaud and Honegger. Cocteau welcomed Poulenc into the group of young composers, for whom he served as a kind of spokesman, when Poulenc was a young man beginning his military service.  They continued a close relationship throughout both their careers, with their best-known collaboration being the 1930 opera La voix humaine. 

Cocteau was active as an avant-garde poet, novelist, playwright and librettist as well as an artist. He once described the relationship between his written and visual work thus: ''Writing for me is drawing, joining up the lines in such a way that they become writing, or unjoining them in such a way that writing becomes drawing."  (14498)

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Art

Classical Music

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