Max Jacob

Home > People > Literature and the Arts > French Literature: Biographies

Jacob, Max (1876–1944). French writer, painter, and draughtsman, a colourful figure in the Parisian art world in the early years of the 20th century. He was born in Quimper, the son of a tailor, and moved to Paris in 1894 to study law. After dropping out of his course, he took up journalism (including art criticism), then studied at the Académie Julian. He was initially unsuccessful at both writing and painting, and he took various lowly jobs to stave off his dire poverty. In 1901 he became friends with Picasso after seeing his first exhibition in Paris and leaving an admiring note at the gallery (Vollard's). John Richardson writes that ‘The pale, thin gnome with strange, piercing eyes almost immediately assumed the role of mentor in Picasso's life … even if at first they had no language in common except mime and were in so many respects unalike. Jacob was Jewish and homosexual (“sodomite sans joie … mais avec ardour”) and deeply insecure … However, he was infinitely perceptive about art as well as literature and an encyclopedia of erudition … He was also very, very funny’ (A Life of Picasso, vol. 1, 1991). During his third visit to Paris, in the winter of 1902–3, Picasso was going through a rare period of abject poverty himself and Jacob helped him out by letting him share his room, Picasso having the bed by day and Jacob by night; a few years later, after Picasso settled in Paris, he and Jacob were neighbours in the Bateau-Lavoir. Jacob's other close friends in the art world included Apollinaire and Gris. His writings, which include poetry, novels, and children's stories, are marked by fantasy and verbal clowning, but also by sharp and ironic observation and intense self-examination. In 1909 he became a convert to Catholicism, although he continued to delve into the occult, and in 1921 he went into semi-monastic retreat at St Benoît-sur-Loire, where he supported himself by painting, his work including pious religious scenes. However, he made visits to Paris, where his old dissolute ways overcame his new piety. In 1943, because he was Jewish, he was arrested by the Germans and sent to a concentration camp at Drancy. Picasso did nothing to save his old friend (their relationship had cooled in the 1930s). Instead, Cocteau pulled strings to get him freed, but he died of pneumonia the day before he was to be released.

Max Jacob , 1876–1944, French writer and painter, b. Brittany. His dream-inspired verse, plays, novels, and paintings bridged and gave impetus to the symbolist and surrealist schools. His conversion (1914) from Judaism to Roman Catholicism had great impact on his work. Among Jacob's novels are Saint Matorel (1911) and Filibuth; ou La Montre en or (1922); his verse, usually light and ironic, includes Fond de l'eau (1927) and Rivages (1932). Prose and poetry are combined in his Défense de Tartufe (1919) and the play Le Siège de Jérusalem: drame céleste (1912–14). His critical study, Art poétique (1922), had wide influence. One-man shows of Jacob's paintings were held in New York in 1930 and 1938. He died in a Nazi concentration camp.

Bibliography: See study of his paintings by G. Kamber (1971); study of his religious poetry by J. Schneider (1978).