Erotic Drawings by Jean Cocteau

Opium-addicted enfant terrible and creative genius – Jean Cocteau (1889-1963) left a quite exclusive mark on art in the first half of our century. Enveloped in a nimbus of immorality, he if any had a way of continually provoking the cultural authorities and astounding the public with his inexhaustible creativity. Be it as a writer, commentator or painter, actor, choreographer or producer, in the course of his spectacular career he worked and quarreled often enough with all the great artists of his era, from Diaghilev, Stravinsky, Satie and Picasso to Apollinaire, Radiguet, Gide and Truffaut. But no matter what form of artistic expression Cocteau chose to use, he left his personal stamp upon it in some inimitable way.

While his literary works and films are known to a wide public, Jean Cocteau’s extensive oeuvre as a painter and draughtsman still holds surprises in store. This book, with over 140 illustrations, presents a broad selection of his erotic drawings from four decades, many as yet unpublished. From “Le Livre blanc”, Cocteau’s controversial homoerotic manifesto printed anonymously in 1928, to his works from the early 60s, the style and line-work may vary but never the theme: Cocteau’s highly explicit works are devoted to one subject alone: the Eros of the male sex.

“As far back as I can remember, I can find traces of my love for boys. I always preferred the strong sex, which I think may legitimately be called the fair sex.”

With these words Jean Cocteau openly acknowledged a homosexuality that he lived out to the full, and expressed in his erotic drawings. The volume contains 140 of his most beautiful works from four decades, most of which are published here for the first time.