“Cartier, a subtle magician who captures fragments of the moon on a thread of sun.”
What is Jean Cocteau referring to? He was alluding to the alchemist, a jeweler who transforms materials—those with the moon’s platinum color, and those with the sun’s gold color.
The Jean-Cocteau Salon at 13 rue de la Paix
It was 1910 and Jean Cocteau was just 21 years old when he published "The Frivolous Prince", a collection of poems that included two wonderful alexandrines dedicated to Cartier. This French artist, writer, poet, filmmaker, painter and playwright, nicknamed “the enfant terrible of literature,” would go on to enchant all of Paris, and the world, from his very first works.
The history between Cartier and this brilliant artist is full of highlights. There is the day when Jean Cocteau approached the jeweler to film diamonds that would appear as tears in his film, "Beauty and the Beast". There are of course his Trinity rings, inseparable from his pinky
finger.
And finally, there is his academician’s sword. Elected to the Académie Française in 1955, his friends commissioned this indispensable accessory from Cartier for the occasion, as well as the “habit vert,” a special green garment.
A true allegory, it encapsulates Jean Cocteau, his passion for mythology, his encounters, his tools, through often-mysterious symbols which we decipher for you before they go on display in the Guggenheim Museum in Venice from April 13th to September 16th, 2024 at the exhibition “Jean Cocteau: The Juggler’s revenge.”
The side profile of ORPHEUS
with an eye made of blue enamel
The lyre of Orpheus,
the poet and musician of Greek mythology around which Cocteau built part of his work
THE STAR,
a signature of the artist
A theater curtain draped
around an ancient column, in reference to the tragedy
The charcoal
of the artist
THE JC MONOGRAM
The gates of the Palais-Royal,
Cocteau’s Parisian residence
The white opal ball
at the end of the scabbard is a reference to his novel, Les Enfants Terribles, in which a snowball strikes the hero
