Editing Max Jacob

{{Short description|French poet, painter, writer and critic}}
{{About|Max Jacob the French writer|the German puppeteer|Max Jacob (puppeteer)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2023}}
{{Infobox writer <!-- for more information see [[:Template:Infobox writer/doc]] -->
| name             = Max Jacob
| image            = Jacob, Max (1876-1944) - 1934 - Foto Carl van Vechten, Library of Congress.jpg
| imagesize        = 
| caption          = Max Jacob in 1934
| pseudonym        = Léon David<br />Morven le Gaëlique
| birth_name       = 
| birth_date       = {{birth date|1876|7|12|df=yes}}
| birth_place      = [[Quimper, Finistère]], Brittany, France
| death_date       = {{death date and age|1944|3|5|1876|7|12|df=yes}}
| death_place      = [[Drancy internment camp|Drancy Deportation Camp]], France
| occupation       = 
| period           = 
| genre            = 
| subject          = 
| movement         = [[School of Paris]]
| notableworks     = 
| influences       = 
| influenced       = 
| signature        = Max Jacob signature.svg
| website          = 
}}

[[File:Modigliani, Amedeo (1884-1920) - Ritratto di Max Jacob (1876-1944) 2.jpg|thumb|Max Jacob, by [[Amedeo Modigliani|Modigliani]], 1916]]
'''Max Jacob''' ({{IPA|fr|maks ʒakɔb|lang}}; 12 July 1876 – 5 March 1944) was a French poet, painter, writer, and critic.
[[File:Picasso three musicians moma 2006.jpg|thumb|270px|[[Pablo Picasso]], 1921, ''Three Musicians'', oil on canvas, 200.7 × 222.9 cm, [[Museum of Modern Art]], New York. Acquired through the [[Lillie P. Bliss]] Bequest; the figure on the right (holding the sheet music) represents Max Jacob.]]

==Life and career==
{{French literature sidebar}}
After spending his childhood in [[Quimper]], Brittany, he enrolled in the Paris Colonial School, which he left in 1897 for an artistic career. He was one of the first friends [[Pablo Picasso]] made in Paris. They met in the summer of 1901, and it was Jacob who helped the young artist learn French.<ref>{{cite book|first=Tim|last=McNeese| title=Pablo Picasso| year=2006 |page=33|publisher=Infobase | isbn=1438106874}}</ref> Later, on the Boulevard Voltaire, he shared a room with Picasso,<ref>{{cite book|last=Jacob | first=Max| editor-first=Maria |editor-last=Green| title=Hesitant fire: selected prose of Max Jacob| year=1991|page= xvi| publisher=U of Nebraska Press| isbn=0803225741}}</ref> who remained a lifelong friend (and was represented as the monk in his painting ''[[Three Musicians (Picasso)|Three Musicians]]'', which Picasso painted in 1921). Jacob introduced him to [[Guillaume Apollinaire]], who in turn introduced Picasso to [[Georges Braque]]. He would become close friends with [[Jean Cocteau]], [[Jean Hugo]], [[Christopher Wood (English painter)|Christopher Wood]] and [[Amedeo Modigliani]], who painted his portrait in 1916.  He also befriended and encouraged the artist Romanin, otherwise known as French politician, and future Resistance leader [[Jean Moulin]].  Moulin's famous ''nom de guerre'' Max is presumed to be selected in honor of Jacob.

Jacob, who was [[Jew]]ish, claimed to have had a vision of Christ in 1909, and converted to [[Roman Catholic Church|Catholicism]]. He was hopeful that this conversion would alleviate his homosexual tendencies.<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/max-jacob | title=Max Jacob| date=21 March 2020}}</ref>

Max Jacob is regarded as an important link between the [[Symbolism (movement)|symbolists]] and the [[surrealist]]s, as can be seen in his prose poems ''Le cornet à dés'' (''The Dice Box'', 1917 – the 1948 [[Gallimard]] edition was illustrated by [[Jean Hugo]]) and in his paintings, exhibitions of which were held in New York City in 1930 and 1938.

His writings include the novel ''Saint Matorel'' (1911), the [[free verse]]s ''Le laboratoire central'' (1921), and ''La défense de Tartuffe'' (1919), which expounds his philosophical and religious attitudes.

The famous psychoanalyst [[Jacques Lacan]] attributed the quote "The truth is always new" to Jacob.<ref>Lacan, Jacques (2008) ''My Teaching'', Verso Press.</ref>

==Death==
Having moved outside Paris in May 1936, to settle in [[Saint-Benoît-sur-Loire]], Loiret, Max Jacob was arrested on 24 February 1944 by the [[Gestapo]], and interned at [[Orléans]] prison (prisoner #15872).<ref>{{Cite web | url=http://www.max-jacob.com/collections.html |title = Les Collections}}</ref> [[Jew]]ish by birth, Jacob's brother Gaston had been previously arrested in January 1944, and deported to the concentration camp [[Auschwitz]] along with their sister Myrthe-Lea; her husband was also deported by the [[Nazis]] at this time. A cousin, [[Andrée Jacob]], survived by living under an assumed name and worked in the Resistance movement [[Noyautage des administrations publiques]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Marie-Jo Bonnet raconte les résistantes oubliées |date=February 2013 |url=https://www.ouest-france.fr/pays-de-la-loire/le-mans-72000/marie-jo-bonnet-raconte-les-resistantes-oubliees-777162}}</ref> Following his incarceration at Orléans, Max was then transferred to [[Drancy internment camp]] from 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.<ref name="Caws">{{cite book |last= Caws |first= Mary Ann |author-link= Mary Ann Caws |title= Yale Anthology of 20th-century French Poetry |chapter= Max Jacob 1876–1944 |chapter-url= https://books.google.com/books?id=YCPUYc-AygYC&q=%22Max+Jacob%22+died&pg=PA47 |year= 2004 |publisher= [[Yale University Press]] |isbn=978-0-300-10010-5 |page=47}}</ref>

First interred in [[Ivry-sur-Seine|Ivry]] after the war ended, his remains were transferred in 1949 by his artist friends [[Jean Cassou]] and [[René Iché]] (who sculpted the tomb of the poet) to the cemetery at [[Saint-Benoît-sur-Loire]] in the [[Loiret]] [[département]].<ref name=":0" />

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

==In popular culture==
German actor [[Udo Kier]] plays Jacob in the 2004 film [[Modigliani (film)|''Modigliani'']]. In the 2006 film ''[[:fr:Monsieur Max|Monsieur Max]]'', which deals with the life of Jacob from the First World War until his death, he was played by [[Jean-Claude Brialy]]; this was Brialy's last film. In the 2013 Spanish film {{lang|es|[[La banda Picasso]]}}, Jacob is played by [[Lionel Abelanski]].<ref name="Variety">{{cite news |last1=Holland |first1=Jonathan |title=Picasso's Gang |url=https://variety.com/2013/film/reviews/picasso-s-gang-1117949165/ |access-date=17 March 2022 |work=Variety |date=5 February 2013 |language=en}}</ref>
[[T. R. Knight]] portrays Jacob in the 2018 season of the television series ''[[Genius (U.S. TV series)|Genius]]'', which focuses on the life and career of Pablo Picasso.

==Gallery==
<gallery mode="packed" heights="220">
File:Max Jacob Le pardon de Sainte-Anne.jpg|''Le pardon de Sainte-Anne''
File:Max Jacob Ploaré.jpg|''Le clocher de Ploaré''
File:Max Jacob Pont-l'Abbé.jpg|''Le marché à Pont-l'Abbé''
File:287 Calvaire Guengat.JPG|''Le calvaire de Guengat''
</gallery>

==See also==
{{Portal|Poetry|Biography|LGBTQ}}
*[[Lionel Floch]]
*''[[Furniture music]]'': [[Erik Satie]]'s second set of ''furniture music'' was composed and performed in 1920 as [[Entr'acte]] music 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), {{ISBN|0-932440-86-X}}
*''Monsieur Max'' (2007), French TV movie starring [[Jean-Claude Brialy]] as Jacob, in Brialy's last film role

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{Commons category}}
{{Wikisourcelang|fr|Auteur:Max Jacob}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20060401002619/http://www.rusmuseum.ru/eng/exhibitions/?id=140&i=4&year=2003&pic=4 Marevna, "Homage to Friends from Montparnasse" (1962)] Top left to right: [[Diego Rivera]], [[Ilya Ehrenburg]], [[Chaïm Soutine]], [[Amedeo Modigliani]], his wife [[Jeanne Hébuterne]], Max Jacob, gallery owner [[Leopold Zborowski]]. Bottom left to right: [[Marevna]], Marika (Marevna and [[Diego Rivera]]'s daughter), [[Moise Kisling]].
* [http://www.max-jacob.com Association les Amis de Max Jacob] {{in lang|fr}}
* {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20130927210310/http://www.necessaryprose.com/jacob.html English translations from Max Jacob's major collection of prose poetry ''The Dice Cup'']}}

{{Authority control (arts)}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jacob, Max}}
[[Category:1876 births]]
[[Category:1944 deaths]]
[[Category:19th-century French painters]]
[[Category:20th-century French painters]]
[[Category:20th-century French male artists]]
[[Category:Converts to Roman Catholicism from Judaism]]
[[Category:French Catholic poets]]
[[Category:French civilians killed in World War II]]
[[Category:19th-century French Jews]]
[[Category:French male painters]]
[[Category:French male poets]]
[[Category:French people who died in Nazi concentration camps]]
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