Henri-Pierre Rocher Multiple Portrait 1917

Henri-Pierre Roché (28 May 1879 – 9 April 1959) was a French author who was involved with the artistic avant-garde in Paris and the

Dada Dada () or Dadaism was an art movement of the European avant-garde in the early 20th century, with early centres in Zürich, Switzerland, at the Cabaret Voltaire (in 1916). New York Dada began c. 1915, and after 1920 Dada flourished in Pari ...

movement. Late in life, Roché published two novels: his first was ''Jules et Jim'' (1953), a semi-autobiographical work published when he was 74. His second novel, ''Les deux anglaises et le continent'' (Two English Girls, 1956), also was inspired by his life. Both were adapted as films by the director François Truffaut, in 1962 and 1971 respectively. The popularity of the film ''

Jules and Jim ''Jules and Jim'' (french: Jules et Jim ) is a 1962 French New Wave romantic drama film, directed, produced and written by François Truffaut. Set before and after World War I, it describes a tragic love triangle involving French Bohemian Jim ...

'' brought renewed attention to Roché's novels and life.

Biography

Roché was born in Paris, France. In 1898, he was an art student at the Académie Julian. Roché became a journalist as well as an art collector and dealer. At the turn of the 20th century, he became close friends with young European artists in the

Montparnasse Quarter Montparnasse () is an area in the south of Paris, France, on the left bank of the river Seine, centred at the crossroads of the Boulevard du Montparnasse and the Rue de Rennes, between the Rue de Rennes and boulevard Raspail. Montparnasse has be ...

of Paris, including

Manuel Ortiz de Zárate Manuel Ortiz de Zárate Pinto (October 9, 1887 – October 28, 1946) was a Chilean painter, born in Italy and raised in Chile. He was active from 1902 to 1945, in Paris and in Italy. Biography Born as Manuel Revuelta Ortiz de Zárate Pinto ...

and

Marie Vassilieff Mariya Ivanovna Vassiliéva (Russian: Мария Ивановна Васильева), (12 February 1884 – 14 May 1957), better known as Marie Vassilieff, was a Russian-born painter active in Paris. She moved to Paris at the age of twenty- ...

; and from Montmartre,

Max Jacob Max Jacob (; 12 July 1876 – 5 March 1944) was a French poet, painter, writer, and critic. Life and career After spending his childhood in Quimper, Brittany, he enrolled in the Paris Colonial School, which he left in 1897 for an artistic ca ...

and

Pablo Picasso Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...

. He was at home in the world of artists, collectors and gallerists. In November 1905, he introduced the Americans

Gertrude Stein Gertrude Stein (February 3, 1874 – July 27, 1946) was an American novelist, poet, playwright, and art collector. Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the Allegheny West neighborhood and raised in Oakland, California, Stein moved to Paris ...

and her brother Leo to Picasso. Leo Stein described Roché as "a tall man with an inquiring eye under an inquisitive forehead, wanted to know something more about everything. He was a born liaison officer, who knew everybody and wanted everybody to know everybody else." Gertrude, in chapter 3 of her ''

The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas ''The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas'' is a book by Gertrude Stein, written in October and November 1932 and published in 1933. It employs the form of an autobiography authored by Alice B. Toklas, her life partner. In 1998, Modern Library r ...

'', described Roché in much the same terms. She particularly appreciated his having read her '' Three Lives'' and early recognition of her value as a writer. Roché was also a friend of

Francis Picabia Francis Picabia (: born Francis-Marie Martinez de Picabia; 22January 1879 – 30November 1953) was a French avant-garde painter, poet and typographist. After experimenting with Impressionism and Pointillism, Picabia became associated with Cubism ...

, Constantin Brâncuși and

Marcel Duchamp Henri-Robert-Marcel Duchamp (, , ; 28 July 1887 – 2 October 1968) was a French painter, sculptor, chess player, and writer whose work is associated with Cubism, Dada, and conceptual art. Duchamp is commonly regarded, along with Pablo Picasso ...

. Following his discharge from the French army, Roché and Duchamp traveled to New York City in 1916. There, they worked with

Beatrice Wood Beatrice Wood (March 3, 1893 – March 12, 1998) was an American artist and studio potter involved in the Avant Garde movement in the United States; she founded and edited ''The Blind Man'' and '' Rongwrong'' magazines in New York City with Fren ...

to create ''

The Blind Man ''The Blind Man'' was an art and Dada journal published briefly by the New York Dadaists in 1917. History Henri-Pierre Roché and Marcel Duchamp, visiting from France, organized the magazine with Beatrice Wood in New York City. Mina Loy also c ...

'' and ''

Rongwrong ''Rongwrong'' was a New York Dadaist magazine of which one issue was published in May 1917. The magazine was co-created and edited by Marcel Duchamp, Henri-Pierre Roché, and Beatrice Wood. History In May 1917, Henri-Pierre Roché played and lost ...

'', two magazines that were among the early manifestations in the United States of the Dada art movement. Roché became the chief advisor to the American art collector John Quinn in 1917 and made many acquisitions for him from 1917 to 1924. Known for his womanizing, Roché married twice, first to Germaine Bonnard (1927-1948; separated 1933), then to Denise Renard (1948-1959). He had no children with Bonnard. His only child, a son with Renard, Jean-Claude Roche, was born in 1931.

Later years and writing

In his later years, he wrote and published two successful novels. His first novel, ''Jules et Jim'' (1952), was published when he was 74. His second novel, also inspired by his life, was ''Les deux anglaises et le continent'' (Two English Girls, 1956). Both novels, although written by a man who was quite advanced in age, express a vitality and freshness not often seen in French romantic stories of the time. The French film director François Truffaut came across a copy of ''Jules et Jim'' secondhand. He located Roché and befriended the writer in his final years. Roché died in 1959 in Sèvres, Hauts-de-Seine. Truffaut was so impressed by Roché's two novels that he adapted each of them as films. Truffaut's first adaptation, ''

'' (1962), was followed by the earliest English translation of the novel as a Panther paperback published in Great Britain in 1963. Truffaut's version of ''Les deux anglaises et le continent'' (''

Two English Girls ''Two English Girls'' (original French title: ''Les Deux Anglaises et le Continent'', UK Title: ''Anne and Muriel''), is a 1971 French romantic drama film directed by François Truffaut and adapted from a 1956 novel of the same name by Henri-Pier ...

'' was released in 1971. Since the late 20th century, biographies of Beatrice Wood have associated Roché's first novel with the love triangle among Duchamp, Wood and Roché. Other sources say he referred to this triangle in his unfinished novel, ''Victor''. Beatrice Wood commented on this topic on p. 136 of her 1985 autobiography, ''I Shock Myself'': ''Jules et Jim'' has been documented as inspired by the triangle among Roché, the German writer

Franz Hessel Franz Hessel (November 21, 1880 – January 6, 1941) was a German writer and translator. With Walter Benjamin, he produced a German translation of three volumes of Marcel Proust's 1913-1927 work ''À la recherche du temps perdu'' in the late 1920s. ...

(who translated Marcel Proust into German, as the character Jules did) and Helen Grund, who married Hessel.
Thierry Leclère
"Stéphane Hessel, un homme engagé : “J’ai toujours été du côté des dissidents”"
''Télérama'', 5 June 2008, updated 12 March 2011). Retrieved 17 March 2017
Ignacio Ramonet
"A Call to Outrage"
, ''Other News'' 15 February 2011. Retrieved 17 March 2011

Notes

References

* Lake, Carlton and Linda Ashton. (1991). ''Henri-Pierre Roché: an Introduction'', Austin, Texas: Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas.
OCLC 24929441

External links

Henri-Pierre Roché Papers
at the

Harry Ransom Center The Harry Ransom Center (until 1983 the Humanities Research Center) is an archive, library and museum at the University of Texas at Austin, specializing in the collection of literary and cultural artifacts from the Americas and Europe for the pur ...

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Roche, Henri-Pierre 1879 births 1959 deaths Writers from Paris Dada Académie Julian alumni French Army soldiers French art collectors French journalists 20th-century French novelists French male novelists 20th-century French male writers French male non-fiction writers