Jean Cocteau

Identification

Published titles

English: Jean Cocteau / The poet Jean Cocteau.

Date

1917, as painted on the canvas at top left. Several compilers (Ceroni, Parisot, Patani, MR, Klein, Fraquelli) date the work 1916 from Cocteau’s own text and from Kisling’s contemporaneous portrait dated 1916.

Medium

Oil on canvas.

Dimensions

100.4 × 81.3 cm.

Signature

Signed modigliani at top left and dated 1917 at top left. This investigation records that the date line usually lies under the frame.

Present location

Henry and Rose Pearlman Foundation, on loan to the Princeton University Art Museum, New Jersey, inv. L.1988.62.18. Lent from 1974.

Catalogue numbers

Legal note on MR: This investigation has not had access to MR’s catalogue raisonné; all research here is based on open sources, publications and exhibitions. By no means has that catalogue been copied at any point. Modigliani Project and Modigliani Initiative are marked YES when the work is published or otherwise recorded by those projects, even if no catalogue number is assigned; otherwise the field is marked ?.

Provenance

1. Acquired from the artist by Jean Cocteau, Paris, about 1917 (this investigation: sold for 5 FF).
2. Moïse Kisling (acquired from Cocteau).
3. Sold by Kisling to the owner of the Café de la Rotonde, about 1917 (this investigation: 11 FF).
4. Decaves Collection, Paris.
5. Léopold Zborowski, Paris.
6. Khoury Collection, Paris.
7. Paul Guillaume, Paris (in 1926).
8. Domenica Guillaume (later Walter) Collection, Paris.
9. Billy Rose Collection, New York (in 1944).
10. George Gard “Buddy” DeSylva Collection, Los Angeles (in 1951).
11. James Vigeveno Galleries, Los Angeles.
12. Pierre F. Nesi, Paris.
13. Henry Pearlman Collection, New York, acquired March 1951 (this investigation: 17,000,000 FF / USD 49,000).
14. Henry and Rose Pearlman Foundation; lent to Princeton University Art Museum from 1974, inv. L.1988.62.18.

The sequence follows the published museum, sale, and catalogue record in this investigation. Gaps and uncertain transfers are marked as such.

Selected bibliography

Book-length publications are marked with a footnote giving a full citation. Exhibition catalogues appear in both this list and the exhibition list when this investigation recorded them in both places. Where this investigation listed a long run of secondary mentions, only the principal catalogues and museum or sale references are retained here.

• Waldemar George, L’Amour de l’art, Paris, 1925, p. 384.
• André Salmon, 1926, pl. 1.¹
• Arthur Pfannstiel, 1929 presumed catalogue, p. 17.²
• Arthur Pfannstiel, 1956, no. 118, dated 1917.³
• Ambrogio Ceroni, 1958, no. 66.⁴
• Joseph Lanthemann, 1970, no. 190, dated 1917.⁵
• Ambrogio Ceroni and Leone Piccioni, 1970, no. 106, dated 1916.⁶
• Werner Schmalenbach, 1990, p. 81, no. 33, dated 1916.⁷
• Christian Parisot, 1991, no. 15/1916.⁸
• Osvaldo Patani, 1991–94, no. 110, dated 1916.⁹
• Kenneth Wayne, 2002, no. 14, p. 91, dated 1916–17.¹⁰
• Mason Klein, The Jewish Museum, 2004–05, p. 136, pl. 52, dated 1916–17.¹¹
• Simonetta Fraquelli, Royal Academy, 2006, pl. 10, p. 32, dated 1916.¹²
• Nancy Ireson and Simonetta Fraquelli, Tate Modern, 2017, p. 113.¹³

Exhibitions

• Paris, Galerie Devambez, 1920.
• Paris, Galerie Bernheim-Jeune, 1922, no. 6.
• New York, Museum of Modern Art, Art in Progress, 1944 (Billy Rose Collection).
• Cleveland / New York, Modigliani, 1951, dated 1917.
• Boston / Los Angeles, 1961, no. 17, dated 1917.
• Edinburgh / London, Tate Gallery, 1963, no. 24.
• New York, Acquavella Galleries, 1971, no. 12, dated 1916.
• London, Royal Academy, Italian Art in the 20th Century, 1989, no. 61.
• Düsseldorf / Zurich, 1991, no. 33, dated 1916.
• Lugano, 1999, no. 29, dated 1916.
• Buffalo / Fort Worth / Los Angeles, 2002–03, no. 14, dated 1916–17.
• New York, The Jewish Museum, 2004.
• Bonn, 2009, no. 68, dated 1916.
• Princeton / Aix-en-Provence / Oxford, Cézanne and the Modern (Pearlman), 2014.
• St Petersburg, Fabergé Museum, 2017–18.
• London, Tate Modern, 2017–18.

Notes

D’Atri papers no. 325, as portrait of the poet Jean Cocteau, 100 × 81 cm, signed top left, dated 1917, Paris; provenance Zborowski > Decaves > Guillaume in 1926.

This investigation records that the canvas was painted at the same time as Kisling’s Jean Cocteau assis dans son atelier (dated 1916). Compilers who prefer 1916 rely on that Kisling date and on Cocteau’s text; the painted date 1917 on this canvas is usually hidden by the frame.

An X-ray published in this investigation shows an earlier painting beneath the present layer, recorded there as probably by Moïse Kisling. The support has been relined and fitted with a new stretcher.

This investigation records a drawn ear painted over the colour.

This investigation records more than fifteen related drawings in old sales and books.

The Henry and Rose Pearlman Foundation and the Princeton University Art Museum publish the canvas as Jean Cocteau, 1916, oil on canvas, 100.4 × 81.3 cm, inv. L.1988.62.18, signed upper left Modigliani, on long-term loan since 1974. The painted date 1917 is retained in this file. Pearlman reads the Café de la Rotonde step as De Caves; this file reads Decaves.

The original documentation assembled for this investigation marked several fields as still being checked. The facts above are those already published; where sources disagree, both readings are given.