Jean Cocteau : Dessins D'une Vie De Milly-La-Forêt Au Centre Pompidou

Exhibition at the Maison Jean Cocteau, Milly-la-Forêt, 1 June - 3 November 2019

In his house in Milly-la-Forêt, where he lived from 1947 until his death in 1963, Jean Cocteau conceived some of his greatest creations. In the evening of his life, he collected numerous works on paper, by himself or by such prestigious artists as Pablo Picasso, Amedeo Modigliani or Marie Laurencin. Most of this exceptional studio collection, which includes several hundred drawings, many of which dating back to the beginning of his career, is now in the Centre Pompidou's collections.

The catalogue published for this occasion and which accompanies the presentation of these drawings at the Maison Jean Cocteau in Milly-la-Forêt offers a dive into the universe of this great poet who was also an astonishing creator of forms. Gathering sketches from his youth, press caricatures, illustrations for magazines or his own writings, as well as self-portraits and portraits of those close to him, these pages invite us to discover a largely unpublished corpus evoking his intimate life and the world of entertainment.