Max Jacob was a French poet, painter, writer, and critic.
Life and career
After spending his childhood in Quimper, Brittany, he enrolled in the Paris Colonial School, which he left in 1897 for an artistic career. He was one of the first friends Pablo Picasso made in Paris. They met in the summer of 1901, and it was Jacob who helped the young artist learn French. Later, on the Boulevard Voltaire, he shared a room with Picasso, who remained a lifelong friend. Jacob introduced him to Guillaume Apollinaire, who in turn introduced Picasso to Georges Braque. He would become close friends with Jean Cocteau, Jean Hugo, Christopher Wood and Amedeo Modigliani, who painted his portrait in 1916. He also befriended and encouraged the artist Romanin, otherwise known as French politician and future Resistance leader Jean Moulin. Moulin's famous nom de guerre Max is presumed to be selected in honor of Jacob. Jacob, who was Jewish, claimed to have had a vision of Christ in 1909, and converted to Catholicism. He was hopeful that this conversion would alleviate his homosexual tendencies. Max Jacob is regarded as an important link between the symbolists and the surrealists, as can be seen in his prose poemsLe cornet à dés and in his paintings, exhibitions of which were held in New York City in 1930 and 1938. His writings include the novelSaint Matorel, the free verses Le laboratoire central, and La défense de Tartuffe, which expounds his philosophical and religious attitudes. The famous psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan attributed the quote "The truth is always new" to Jacob.
Death
Having moved outside of Paris in May 1936, to settle in Saint-Benoît-sur-Loire, Loiret, Max Jacob was arrested on 24 February 1944 by the Gestapo, and interned at Orléans prison. Jewish by birth, Jacob's brother Gaston had been previously arrested in January 1944, and deported to the concentration campAuschwitz along with his sister Myrthe-Lea; her husband was also deported by the Nazis at this time. Following his incarceration at Orléans, Max was then transferred to Drancy 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 in the infirmary of La Citéde la Muette, a former housing block which served as the internment camp known as Drancy on 5 March. First interred in Ivryafter the war ended, his remains were transferred in 1949 by his artist friends Jean Cassou and René Iché to the cemetery at Saint-Benoît-sur-Loire in the Loiret département.
Pseudonyms
As well as his nom d'état civil, or regular name, Jacob worked under at least two pseudonyms, Léon David and Morven le Gaëlique.
