Jean Cocteau House Exterior Milly-la-Foret

The Jean Cocteau House was the residence of the French poet, artist, playwright and film maker

Jean Cocteau Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau (, , ; 5 July 1889 – 11 October 1963) was a French poet, playwright, novelist, designer, filmmaker, visual artist and critic. He was one of the foremost creatives of the s ...

(1889–1963), which he purchased with the film actor Jean Marais in 1947, and where he created many of his later works before his death in 1963. It is located about fifty kilometers south of Paris in the village of

Milly-la-Forêt Milly-la-Forêt () is a commune in the Essonne department in the Île-de-France region in northern France. Geology The Forest of Fontainebleau, in the western end of which Milly-la-Forêt lies, is composed of the Oligocene Fontainebleau sands, ...

in the

Essonne Essonne () is a department of France in the southern Île-de-France region. It is named after the river Essonne. In 2019, it had a population of 1,301,659 across 194 communes.Henry IV of France Henry IV (french: Henri IV; 13 December 1553 – 14 May 1610), also known by the epithets Good King Henry or Henry the Great, was King of Navarre (as Henry III) from 1572 and King of France from 1589 to 1610. He was the first monarch ...

and a clerical residence, with twelve rooms, adjacent to the Chateau of

. The house adjoins the walls and moat of the 13th century chateau. In 1947, at a time when his fame and fortune had been greatly increased by the enormous success of his film ''Beauty and The Beast'', Cocteau and his frequent companion of the time, the film actor Jean Marais, purchased part of the domain of the chateau, including the house, garden and part of the woods, and used it as a retreat from his residence on Rue Montpensier in Paris. Cocteau stayed there on occasion during his early years of ownership, but when he entered a relationship with Edouard Dermit he stayed there for longer periods of time, and created many of his later works there. Cocteau died on October 11, 1963, at the age of 73 years, and was buried in the Chapel of Saint-Blaise-des Simples nearby, which he had decorated. Dermit inherited the house and the works of art it contained and kept them until his own death in 1995, after which his son Stéphane became owner of the house. In 2002 the businessman and philanthropist Pierre Bergé purchased the house, with the assistance of the Regional Council of the Essonne and the French Ministry of Culture, and began an extensive campaign of restoration between 2005 and 2010. The house was opened to the public by the French Minister of Culture,

Frédéric Mitterrand Frédéric Mitterrand (born 21 August 1947) is a French politician who served as Minister of Culture and Communication of France from 2009 to 2012 under President Nicolas Sarkozy. Throughout his career, he has been an actor, screenwriter, tele ...

, on June 24, 2010.

The House

File:Maison Jean Cocteau a Milly la Forêt P1050649.JPG, 17th-century entrance of The Jean Cocteau House File:Jean Cocteau House Grand Salon.jpg, The Grand Salon File:Desk of Jean Cocteau.jpg, Cocteau's side table in his study, with a bust of Lord Byron The rooms of the house have been recreated as they appeared during Cocteau's residence, with his collections of art works, furniture and souvenirs. In his study on the first floor, his writing table faced the window, and he sat in a 19th-century gothic revival cathedral chair. The side table and wall are covered with photographs, drawings, and various souvenirs, among them a bust of

Lord Byron George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron (22 January 1788 – 19 April 1824), known simply as Lord Byron, was an English romantic poet and peer. He was one of the leading figures of the Romantic movement, and has been regarded as among the ...

, a signed photograph of

Orson Welles George Orson Welles (May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985) was an American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter, known for his innovative work in film, radio and theatre. He is considered to be among the greatest and most influential f ...

as Othello, a photograph of

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 ...

, a drawing of

Charles Baudelaire Charles Pierre Baudelaire (, ; ; 9 April 1821 – 31 August 1867) was a French poet who also produced notable work as an essayist and art critic. His poems exhibit mastery in the handling of rhyme and rhythm, contain an exoticism inherited ...

Manet A wireless ad hoc network (WANET) or mobile ad hoc network (MANET) is a decentralized type of wireless network. The network is ad hoc because it does not rely on a pre-existing infrastructure, such as routers in wired networks or access points ...

, and a photo montage of

Jean-Paul Sartre Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre (, ; ; 21 June 1905 – 15 April 1980) was one of the key figures in the philosophy of existentialism (and phenomenology), a French playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and lit ...

and Pope Pius XI. Over the mantlepiece in the study is a high-relief art work of a hot-air balloon caught in a storm, by G. Lapruffe, on the mantlepiece are small works of antique Roman sculpture, and on the wall hangs a portrait of a young woman by the French painter Amoury-Duval (1867).

The Museum

File:Beauty and Beast script Cocteau.jpg, A handwritten page of the ''

Beauty and the Beast ''Beauty and the Beast'' (french: La Belle et la Bête) is a fairy tale written by French novelist Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve and published in 1740 in ''La Jeune Américaine et les contes marins'' (''The Young American and Marine ...

'' scenario by Cocteau (1946) In the hallways of the first floor are displayed paintings, graphics and posters by or about Cocteau's. They include a page from the original hand-written script of his 1946 film ''Beauty and the Beast'' and a poster from his film ''Orpheus''.

The Chapel of Saint-Blaise-des-Simples

The Chapel of Saint-Blaise-des-Simples, where the tomb of Cocteau is located, is at the edge of Milly-la-Foret, not far from the house. It was originally constructed in the 12th century, and is the last vestige of a medieval ''maladrerie'', a hospital constructed especially for those suffering from

leprosy Leprosy, also known as Hansen's disease (HD), is a long-term infection by the bacteria ''Mycobacterium leprae'' or ''Mycobacterium lepromatosis''. Infection can lead to damage of the nerves, respiratory tract, skin, and eyes. This nerve damag ...

. Beginning in 1959, Cocteau decorated the chapel on the theme of ''simples'', or medicinal plants, with murals of a Christ with a crown of thorns and of medicinal herbs including mint, belladonna and

buttercups ''Ranunculus'' is a large genus of about almost 1700 to more than 1800 species of flowering plants in the family Ranunculaceae. Members of the genus are known as buttercups, spearworts and water crowfoots. The genus is distributed in Europe, ...

. His tomb is inscribed with the words "Je reste avec vous'" ("I remain with you").''Le Guide du Patrimoine en France'' (2002), Editions du Patrimoine, Centre des Monuments Nationaux, page 290 , The tomb of Cocteau in the Chapelle Saint Blaise=des-, illustration of a medicinal plant, or "Simple", a cat, and Cocteau's signature in the Chapelle Saint-Blaise-des-Simples

Notes and Citations

Bibliography

* ''Le Guide du Patrimoine en France'', Editions du Patrimoine, Centre des Monuments Nationaux (2002), * Sanson, Marie, ''Maison Jean Cocteau'', Somogy éditions d'art, (2010), (in French)

External links

*
Cocteau/cinema Bibliography (via UC Berkeley)
*
Cocteau CMEF Cap d'Ail

Maison Jean Cocteau - Cocteau's former home
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cocteau, Jean Maisons des Illustres