Cocteau - Head of a Faun

French poet, painter, designer, playwright and filmmaker, among the artists who marked the first half of the 20th century,
Jean Cocteau (1889-1963) rubbed shoulders with most of those who animated the artistic life of his time. Louis Aragon spoke of a "poet-orchestra", because we find in his work a "graphic poetry", a "pictorial poetry" or even a "cinematographic poetry".
He was able to combine so harmoniously Hellenic culture and modern French culture with an undeniable interest in the myths of Antiquity. Fauns are rural and forest divinities, companions of shepherds: half-man, half-goat. Expressing simply and lucidly the essential without sacrificing complexity, like Greek art, in this drawing Cocteau shows us in a few strokes the profile of this faun. Economy of line was his motto.

© Jean Cocteau Committee 2014