Max Jacob

This article is about Max Jacob the French writer. For the German puppeteer, seeMax Jacob (puppeteer).

Max Jacob
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
Signature

Max Jacob, byModigliani,1916

Max Jacob(French:[maksʒakɔb];12 July 1876 – 5 March 1944) was a French poet, painter, writer, and critic.

Pablo Picasso,1921,Three Musicians,oil on canvas, 200.7 × 222.9 cm,Museum of Modern Art,New York. Acquired through theLillie P. BlissBequest; the figure on the right (holding the sheet music) represents Max Jacob.

Life and career

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 Picassomade 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 (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 WoodandAmedeo 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 guerreMax is presumed to be selected in honor of Jacob.

Jacob, who wasJewish,claimed to have had a vision of Christ in 1909, and converted toCatholicism.He was hopeful that this conversion would alleviate his homosexual tendencies.

Max Jacob is regarded as an important link between thesymbolistsand thesurrealists,as can be seen in his prose poemsLe cornet à dés(The Dice Box,1917 – the 1948Gallimardedition 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 Lacanattributed the quote "The truth is always new" to Jacob.

Death

Having moved outside of Paris in May 1936, to settle inSaint-Benoît-sur-Loire,Loiret, Max Jacob was arrested on 24 February 1944 by theGestapo,and interned atOrléansprison (prisoner #15872).Jewishby birth, Jacob's brother Gaston had been previously arrested in January 1944, and deported to the concentration campAuschwitzalong with their sister Myrthe-Lea; her husband was also deported by theNazisat this time. A cousin,Andrée Jacob,survived by living under an assumed name and worked in the Resistance movementNoyautage des administrations publiques.Following his incarceration at Orléans, Max was then transferred toDrancy internment campfrom 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.

First interred inIvryafter the war ended, his remains were transferred in 1949 by his artist friendsJean CassouandRené Iché(who sculpted the tomb of the poet) to the cemetery atSaint-Benoît-sur-Loirein theLoiretdépartement.

Pseudonyms

As well as hisnom d'état civil,or regular name, Jacob worked under at least two pseudonyms, Léon David and Morven le Gaëlique.

In popular culture

German actorUdo Kierplays 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. T. R. Knightportrays Jacob in the 2018 season of the television seriesGenius,which focuses on the life and career of Pablo Picasso.

Gallery

• 
  Le pardon de Sainte-Anne
• 
  Le clocher de Ploaré
• 
  Le marché à Pont-l'Abbé
• 
  Le calvaire de Guengat

See also

• Lionel Floch
• Furniture music:Erik Satie's second set offurniture musicwas composed and performed in 1920 asEntr'actemusic for one of Jacob's comedies (Ruffian toujours, truand jamais– text of this play is lost)
• The Selected Poems of Max Jacob,trans. William Kulik (Oberlin College Press, 1999),ISBN0-932440-86-X
• Monsieur Max(2007), French TV movie starringJean-Claude Brialyas Jacob, in Brialy's last film role

External links

• Marevna, "Homage to Friends from Montparnasse" (1962)Top left to right:Diego Rivera,Ilya Ehrenburg,Chaïm Soutine,Amedeo Modigliani,his wifeJeanne Hébuterne,Max Jacob, gallery ownerLeopold Zborowski.Bottom left to right:Marevna,Marika (Marevna andDiego Rivera's daughter),Moise Kisling.
• Association les Amis de Max Jacob(in French)
• English translations from Max Jacob's major collection of prose poetryThe Dice Cup