Chapter 35 II Departure from Montparnasse to War (1) The Frivolous Prince

... Before him, there were only fierce confrontations between factions and factions in the taverns on Montparnasse Avenue; My art of "deceiving". Andre Salmon Apollinaire asked for leave from the army and traveled all the way to Algeria to visit his fiancée.After two weeks of sweetness and warmth in Madeleine's arms, Apollinaire passed through Paris on his way back to the army and only stayed for a few hours.Those who returned to Paris were puzzled by his behaviour.Although the city of Paris is also in wartime, it is far from the front line.Zeppelin airship Zeppelin, an airship built by the Germans in the early 20th century.It was true that the bombings often came at night: after the sirens were lowered, these gray, oval-shaped creatures flew about 150 meters above Paris.Anti-aircraft guns fired all over the city, vowing to destroy them all.In searchlights, curious Parisians could sometimes spot bombardiers atop airship pods with arms raised and murder bombs in their hands.There were not many people watching the battle, because every family hid in the basement, waiting for the alarm to be lifted.

In addition, there are countless people who are hungry and cold, and there are also many soldiers working in the rear.According to Jean Hugo, Léon-Paul Falgue used his connection with a non-commissioned officer to demobilize his friends.Apollinaire sarcastically ridiculed his companions who were greedy for life and feared death and hid in the factory.Sandras was also unkind to people who took refuge in Spain and the United States. In 1915, there was a conflict between De Lang and Flemish. He accused Flemish of hiding behind and not going to the front. So, what are those who left the military and those who didn't get to go to war doing?

They drank in Luo Tongde's cream-café tavern, waiting for the war to end.Refugees far away from their homeland chose Montparnasse as a temporary shelter, peeping and waiting for a possible revolution. Lenin lived in Marie-Rose, near Aresia, in the 14th arrondissement of Paris. , Martov, Ilya Ehrenbourg (1891-1967), Soviet writer and journalist. (Making a living as a translator and as a tour guide for tourists in Paris) and Trotsky also lived there.The latter accepted the suggestion of a Kyiv newspaper (Kievskaya Mysl) to serve as the newspaper's special correspondent in France. Trotsky arrived in Montparnasse at the end of November 1914.He first rented a room in a hotel in the Rue Odessa, and when his wife and children came, he moved to the Rue Admiral Mucher, near the Parc Montsouris.In addition to completing the work of a newspaper reporter, he also participated in the work of a small daily newspaper that was just started by Russian immigrants.After two years in France, he was deported by the French authorities.

Trotsky often went to Rotonde, and also to the Barty's tavern at the intersection of the Avenue Montparnasse and the Avenue Raspail.Legend has it that Apollinaire vigorously promoted the wine in this tavern, and rich people came to this tavern for parties, but left a pile of credit bills. A few years later, the stay of these Russian revolutionaries in France was slammed and even added to some caricatures.For example, Vlaminck met Trotsky one day in Rotonde, who said to him: I love your paintings...but you should draw miners, construction workers and working people!Greatly praise labor and praise the working people!

[Excerpt from "Portrait Before Death" by Maurice Vlaminck] Everyone admits: not because Trotsky was Diego Rivera (1886-1957), a Mexican painter.friend (to whom Trotsky joined Diego Rivera in Mexico a long time later), he and his Bolshevik comrades had time for art . . . Some gatherings between them are simply unimaginable.Imagine Lenin, Trotsky and Martov, a group of Mensheviks and Bolsheviks in the smoky, ether-smelling Rotonde tavern, with Modigliani shouting anti-militarist slogans on the right and naked on the left Su Ding, who was wrapped in a coat, kept moaning and moaning. A little further away, Delang, who was on vacation that day, folded cardboard to make a small plane, and threw it everywhere, even into the wine glasses of these gentlemen... What a sight it was.

There is something practical about Max Jacob going to places like these where artists spend their time. One day in 1916, the poet (Max Jacob) opened the door and entered Luo Tongde.He told everyone there what he had been doing lately: a month as an ambulance driver in Anquien, a northern suburb of Paris; thirty days among weeping mothers and wives in a beautiful garden ; Since there were not many wounded, he used his spare time to sort out his poems and manuscripts in preparation for the publication of his works in the future. Then, naturally, he talked about Picasso.He complained to him in a low voice.Because Eva suffered from tuberculosis for several months, the treatment failed and Picasso was in mourning.A handful of them sent her to the cemetery, including Juan Gris.It was all very distressing, and Max Jacobs drank constantly, and in large quantities.When drunk, Jacob used to tell silly stories about how he and the coachman in the funeral procession had become very good friends.People accuse him of not knowing self-love.

Picasso was very dissatisfied with Jacob.Max paid so much for him, and now he hates Max Jacob very much. At the other end of the tavern hall, a young man kept his ears up, listening intently to the conversations of the people around him for Picasso. He sat at the bar, across from Libion, the proprietor, rocking his aviator shoes tied to the ankles, and his crisp red trousers with yellow leather rings looked particularly good with his black top.His sleeves were trimmed with white lace, and his lilac helmet was dangling nonchalantly in his hand. Returning from the war, he was sent first to the Quartermaster in Paris, then to the Ambulance Corps commanded by Étienne de Beaumont, which he found to be an excellent job.

Flemish, who had just opened the door and entered Rotonde's tavern, recognized Cocteau's active and graceful arms when he passed the center of the hall. He went straight to Salmon and Calco, who were sitting side by side, looking at the noble soldier and talking and laughing. Vlaminck whispered: "He is the spiritual son of Picasso and Max Jacob, but he was fostered in the house of Anna de Noaille." Salmon raised his glass. "Here's to Ariel in the Salon!" Calco clinks glasses with him. "Here's to the old women's favorites!" Then added: "Here's to the sweet theorist."

"To the frivolous prince!" said Vlaminck at last. This was the title of a book published by Cocteau five years earlier, in 1910.The book was hardly appreciated by the painters and poets on the left bank of the Seine.Because they hate anything right bank dudes do, even if they break away from their original party.Cocteau himself forcibly entered a circle that would not accept him, took root there, and became the confidant of almost everyone, but the reality of previous years has not changed in the slightest: he is still regarded as an outsider. Francis Calco acknowledged Cocteau's great contribution: "Without Jean Cocteau, who can believe that those who pretend to be elegant can accept Cubism?" Admiring him, he said: "Don't believe Cocteau easily... This is a man who is good at deception, a chameleon." Levedi thinks that Cocteau is an "anti-poet", and he "has revealed his inner secrets. hobby, imitation, achievement maniac, and a cunning liar."Andre Salmon's evaluation of Cocteau was harsher and more ruthless than others. He wrote: "After coming from the right bank, he used all possible means and speed, hey! Taxi! Since then, he has never appeared on the right bank again. After his exquisite and authentic dialect convinced the people who soaked in the Rotonde cream-café all day long, the poet ... left." [Excerpt from André Salmon's "" Montparnasse]

Max Jacobs also criticized Cocteau, and Cocteau also picked on Jacob's thorns: the author of "Rolling the Dice Cup" is a "Catholic nouveau riche, a gentle and dirty man who meddles in everything." Dirty people" or "It's Jean-Jacques Rousseau in the toilet..." However, that didn't stop the two from being the best friends in the world.We have seen before, and we shall see later, that when Picasso hid without a trace while Max Jacob was imprisoned in the Drancy concentration camp, Cocteau tried in every possible way to rescue him. Cage, unfortunately it was too late. In 1942, he also interceded for himself to the Vichy government.It was because of his despicable behavior that Philip Supo hated him so much.Su Bo said that he discovered two letters written by Cocteau to Pétain in February 1942 at the public sale of the original letters and manuscripts in 1983 (at this sale, he sold the manuscript of "Magnetic Field"). letter.After Jean Maret and Cocteau himself came under the watch of the gendarmes and were targeted by the press collaborating with the pseudo-regime, Cocteau asked Marshal Pétain to intercede to allow the play "Renaud", which should have been banned, to be released. and Armide" continued at the French Opera.Su Bo quotes some excerpts from the letter:

I have consulted with the French Opera, and decided to write for the Opera a large lyric opera that preaches what Your Excellency taught us. . .My life is blameless, my work untainted.I'm Admiral Darlan's cousin.Mr. Marshal, the reason why I make the above request to you is because I respect you and love you. [Excerpt from "Reminiscences of Forgotten" by Philip Supper] Long before February 1942, the Surrealists despised Jean Cocteau.André Breton even begged forgiveness for mentioning Cocteau's name in his "Promenade".He condemned Cocteau as a crazy careerist who was greedy for fame, fortune and status, and tried every means to curry favor with Princess Bosco, Princess Polignac, Queen Eugenie, and Liana de Buki, the wife of Prince George Chica of Romania. , as well as French composer Reynaldo Arne and painter Jacques-Emile Blanche, who shared his love of gold jewelry and visiting salons.In fact, the poets and painters of Montmartre have already seen everything about him. Jean Cocteau loves to show off and shows off everywhere.When he arrived at Montparnasse, he showed off one of his most beautiful treasures-a glittering ornament of the Ballets Russes. The Iskosteva Ballet was founded in St. Petersburg in 1898.Under the leadership of the Russian choreographer Falkina, the troupe recruited painters and musicians. In 1909, the troupe established itself at the Chatelet Theater in Paris.Falkina and Sergey Diaghilev knew that if they wanted to break with classical ballet, they had to add modern artists to their troupe.From this perspective, they are the founders of modern ballet.They completely broke with the popular music at that time, and their works were scored by brand-new composers: Auric, De Farah, Millau, Prokofeev, Satie, Stravinski (1882-1971) ), a Russian composer who later became a French citizen and then an American citizen. .Following Baxter, the troupe also signed contracts with Derain, Braque and Picasso to participate in set design. Nijinsky and Casavina's performance sparked ballet frenzy...or outrage in France. In May 1913, performances of Claude Debussy's "Prelude to the Afternoon of the Faun" and, in particular, Igor Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring" at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées.This is really a big scandal comparable to the first "Onani". On February 23, 1830, Victor Hugo's play "Onani" or "Castiri" was performed for the first time at the French Opera House. Atrocities against Asia, a violent quarrel took place in the nave of the theater between the classical and the Romances. .The luminaries of art and literature from all over Paris were present: Debussy, Ravel, Gide, Proust, Claudel, Sarah Bernhardt, Regina, Isadora Duncan...and of course Jean Cocteau, the theater seemed about to be overwhelmed by the rich jewelry and high-end fur costumes of the guests present. As soon as the curtain was lifted, the quarrel began immediately.The whole hall was divided into two factions: the stage designers who defended Stravinsky and Nijinsky on one side, and everyone else on the other side.On one side, people were cheering and clapping; on the other, they were cursing and banging their canes on the floor.The sound of the music was completely drowned out by the quarreling of the audience.On the stage, the calm dancers continued to perform as if nothing had happened.Wearing a top hat, new beige gloves, and a dress, Apollinaire walked between rows of seats. When the beautiful women didn't pay attention to him, he kissed their hands one by one. The scandal of The Rite of Spring can also be compared to the sensation caused by the exhibition of Cubist paintings at the Independent Painting Fair a few months ago. Jean Cocteau is like a bee gathering honey everywhere, reaping the benefits of the fisherman. He had known Diaghilev several years earlier and had met Stravinsky in 1911.A year later, he wrote a ballet, The Blue God, to music by Reynaldo Arne, which was performed by the Ballets Russes in May 1912. From then on, Cocteau had a great ideal in mind: to unite the avant-garde figures and provide Diaghilev with what he still lacked: let the St. Petersburg Theater Company cooperate with the painter.Now that he had succeeded, and the collaboration had aroused public outrage, it was Cocteau's turn to be the commander-in-chief of the new art, and indeed of the art world as a whole. After many efforts, Cocteau began to approach Cubism.For this he had to meet Albert Glaize, who introduced him to the Gold School artists.But this is just the beginning, not enough. When he arrived in Montparnasse, Cocteau immediately realized that his peers had already reached the front line, and it was time for him to stand out. He wrote: "It's time to capture Paris." What is Paris?Paris is Picasso.Cocteau had been thinking about him a long time ago.Jean Cocteau has no reason not to fish in troubled waters and take the opportunity to make a fortune, and will the artist be able to join his team?This team had to be a celebrity in the art world on par with Max Jacobs, Pierre Levedi and Guillaume Apollinaire.So, he began to work hard to achieve his goal.This young man (he was 26 years old at the time) aimed at the chosen object.Whenever he had the opportunity, he gave Picasso some small gifts, such as cigarettes, and often wrote him some most tragic letters, such as: "My dear Picasso, I must draw a portrait of me as soon as possible, because I about to die." A few weeks before Eva's death, he entered Picasso's studio in Rue Schercher with relative ease.It was Edgar Valez who helped.The poet sighed for this: "I think I am one of the few people who is qualified to enter your territory immediately and to translate it accurately in my language. I think our two ways are different, but the needs are different. It is completely consistent." [Excerpt from Jean Cocteau's "Picasso"] From the first visit, Cocteau has had a dream: to be able to go again.Because like Max Jacobs, he already knew that Picasso was the greatest person he ever met in his life.Unfortunately, if he wanted to achieve his purpose, he had to go to the Luo Tongde Tavern and socialize with a group of Cubist painters he didn't quite understand.Despite their shabby clothes and dull conversation, they always look with contempt on the well-dressed, beautiful, and elegant.His dream is to get a painting signed by the famous Spanish painter.To achieve this goal, he did not hesitate. In January 1915, Picasso painted a graphite portrait of Max Jacob.This portrait was painted in a similar manner to the one painted for Ambroise Vollard in the same year.These two paintings caused a sensation in the circle of Rue de Vavins artists like a heavy bomb exploded: Is Picasso abandoning Cubism?Is he going to engage in more classical realism than black African art?Even Beatrice Hastings talks about it in her New World. Jean Cocteau thought, if Max Jacobs could do it, why couldn't I? But when will such a favor be obtained?There's only one good channel...however, let's be honest.This isn't anything new either.When Cocteau was looking at "The Harlequin" (Fig. 46) painted by Picasso when Eva was critically ill, he suddenly came up with such an idea.Because Leonce Rosenberg, who bought the painting, revealed to him that Picasso had a soft spot for circus masks. Cocteau put a coin on the counter, smiled at Libion, got down from the high stool in front of the bar with elegant and steady movements, carefully smoothed the wrinkles on the red trousers, and pinched the purple helmet tightly with his right hand. Ribbon, having greeted all present with a very polite farewell, left the tavern to complete the whole set of plans which had formed in his clever mind.