Jean Cocteau (1889-1963)
Young Man Sleeping, China Sea, May 1936
Pencil on paper
Signed and inscribed lower left, dated upper right
10.5 x 9 inches
Provenance: Estate of Burgess Meredith
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Jean Cocteau
Original Drawing, May 1936
Original Drawing, May 1936
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Pencil drawing of a young man sleeping aboard a ship, inscribed by Jean Cocteau to movie actress Paulette Goddard
Jean Cocteau was an accomplished poet, writer, artist, dramatist and filmmaker. At the age of 47, from March 17 to June 29, 1936, he undertook an "around the world in 80 days" tour. By that time he was a major European art world figure, who had collaborated with Picasso, Diaghilev and Stravinsky among others. Cocteau's round-the-world travels eventually took him to Hong Kong, where he boarded the Kashima Maru, a Japanese luxury liner that operated from 1913 to 1943. On May 11, he discovered that movie star Charlie Chaplin (1889-1977) and his third wife, Paulette Goddard (1911-1990), were also passengers. It was on this leg of the journey that Cocteau made this drawing for Goddard, then only 25 years old. According to Chaplin's memoirs, he and Cocteau sat down with a translator and in one meeting exhausted everything they had to say to each other. He describes the ensuing travels across the Pacific as comically awkward, the two men trying to avoid each other, lest they be trapped in boring conversation. However, Cocteau's account of his travels, My First Voyage, published in 1937, presents a contrasting view -- he writes that he and Chaplin became so attached that it was difficult for them to say goodbye when the ship docked in San Francisco.
Paulette Goddard later married film actor Burgess Meredith, and this drawing was in his estate when he died in 1997.
Signed and inscribed lower left: "á Paulette, la petite fille trés pure, ce souvenir de notre rencontre et d'une amitie de toujours. Jean." [to Paulette, the very pure little girl, this remembrance of our meeting and of a friendship forever. Jean.]
Dated upper right: "Mer de Chine, Mai 1936, Kashima-Maru." [China Sea, May 1936, Kashima-Maru.]
References:
Fulford, Robert. "The bizarre poetry of random encounters." The National Post. Canada: 27 February 2001. http://www.robertfulford.com/RandomEncounters.html (4 March 2003)
"Les Âges de Jean Cocteau. 1936 - 47 Ans." http://perso.club-internet.fr/leonicat/cocteau/ages/1936.htm (4 March 2003)
"Ocean Liner Postcards." 5 August 2002. http://homepages.ed.ac.uk/rjhare/postcards/exhibitions/liners/ (4 March 2003).